Electromyographic responses of mammalian motor units to a fatigue test

Evidence is presented that marked changes in the electromyographic (EMG) activity of single motor units often occur during a fatigue-test paradigm (12) widely used for the classification of mammalian motor units into fast-fatigable (FF), fast-intermediate-fatigable, fast-fatigue-resistant and slow categories (11), particularly in type FF units. Force output and EMG activity were measured in single motor units of the tibialis posterior muscle of anasthetized cats, while each unit was subjected to a fatigue test consisting of 4 min of motor-axon stimulation, using 1 Hz 330 ms trains of 0.1 ms shocks at 40 Hz. As a measure of the temporal characteristics of the EMG waveform, the reciprocal of the interval between first positive and subsequent negative peak was measured. For parameters of EMG magnitude, peak-to-peak amplitude and area were measured. The fatigue test was shown to produce, on average, significantly greater alterations in the values of the EMG parameters of FF units than of the other unit types. There were no significant EMG alterations among the other unit types. The results are discussed in relation to the interpretation of EMG depression as an indication of excitation failure and the relative fatigability and EMG depression of different motor unit types.