Recovery after muscular fatigue in hemiparesis

Setchenov showed in 1903 that the amount of work he could perform with his right arm after a pause, during which he had worked with his nonfatigued left arm was greater than if he had rested passively between bouts. Asmussen and Mazin have shown that recuperation after local muscle fatigue was influenced by a central nervous factor. In this paper 10 stroke patients were examined and the muscular activity of the deltoid was measured by means of EMG. The intact deltoid behaved according to Setchenov's observation. In 4 patients the diverting activity did not have any beneficial effect on the paretic muscle. It is assumed that in some of the stroke patients the brain damage affects the facilitatory centers which are needed for the recuperation after muscular fatigue.