Motor-unit force potentiation in adult cats during a standard fatigue test

1. The purpose of this study was to examine the time course of tetanic force during a standard fatigue test and to distinguish between the appearance of potentiation and fatigue among the four motor-unit types of a cat hindlimb muscle. 2. Motor units of the tibialis posterior muscle in the adult cat were assigned to four categories (i.e. types S, FR, FI, FF) based on conventional criteria (Burke, Levine, Tsairis & Zajac, 1973). The mean (+/- S.D.) time course of peak force was constructed for each motor-unit type and, within each type, for those units that potentiated (a greater than 3% increase in peak force compared to the initial value) and those that did not potentiate. 3. The average time courses of force differed between motor-unit types. There was, however, considerable variability within each motor-unit type. For the same relative force output, the forces exerted by slow-twitch units were less variable than those exerted by fast-twitch units. In addition, the variability among slow-twitch units was relatively constant during the fatigue test while variability among fast-twitch units either increased or decreased with time. 4. For a given motor-unit type, the average time course of force did not depend on whether force in each tetanus was expressed as a peak value, an average peak value, or a force-time integral. 5. Some motor units within each type exhibited potentiation. Most of the variability in the time course of the peak force for each motor-unit type could be accounted for by the potentiating units. Motor units that exhibited only force decline (i.e. fatigue), regardless of unit type, had less variable time courses of peak force. Since potentiation was transient in some unit types, it was assumed that at least two opposing processes (i.e. fatigue and potentiation) occurred simultaneously in these units (see also, Krarup, 1981; Rankin, Enoka, Volz & Stuart, 1988; Garner, Hicks & McComas, 1989). 6. It is concluded that the expression of force potentiation throughout a fatiguing regimen is variable among motor units and that this is not related to conventional motor-unit types. This dissociation suggests that the mechanisms that form the basis for the conventional distinction between motor-unit types are different from those which lead to force potentiation.