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Long-term adaptations differ for shortening and lengthening contractions

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether practice of a sinusoidal task induces different neural adaptations for shortening and lengthening contractions performed within a task. Fourteen young adults were instructed to accurately match a sinusoidal target by lifting and lowering a light load (15% of 1 repetition maximum; 1-RM) with their index finger for 35 s. Each subject performed a total of 50 practice trials during the practice session. After 48 h, subjects performed five trials with the same sinusoidal target at each of three loading conditions: 15% (retention/savings), 7.5% (transfer to a lighter load), and 30% (transfer to a heavier load) of 1-RM. Movement error was quantified as the root mean square error of the movement trace from the target, while movement variability was quantified as the standard deviation of the acceleration of the index finger. First dorsal interosseus muscle activation was recorded using surface electromyography (EMG). The frequency structure of the acceleration and EMG signals were obtained using wavelets. Subjects were able to retain the trained task for both shortening and lengthening contractions; however, they exhibited better savings for the shortening contractions. Additionally, for the lowering segments of the task subjects exhibited better transfer to the lighter load. Short-term adaptation and transfer results may be related to changes in the agonist muscle neural activation. Finally, we found greater movement variability during lengthening contractions which was related to both the frequency structure of the acceleration and EMG signals.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Institute on Aging Grant R01 AG-031769 to E. A. Christou. We would like to thank Professor Roger Enoka for suggesting the separation of the task into shortening and lengthening phases; Jonathan Leake for helping with programming and SophieAnn Jean-Félix for helping revising the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, 32611-8205, USA

    Osmar Pinto Neto, Ana Carolina de Miranda Marzullo, Harsimran S. Baweja & Evangelos A. Christou

  2. Centro de Engenharia Biomedica, Universidade Camilo Castelo Branco, São Paulo, Brazil

    Osmar Pinto Neto & Ana Carolina de Miranda Marzullo

  3. Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, USA

    Hillary Lindheim

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  1. Osmar Pinto Neto
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  2. Hillary Lindheim
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  3. Ana Carolina de Miranda Marzullo
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  4. Harsimran S. Baweja
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  5. Evangelos A. Christou
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Correspondence to Evangelos A. Christou.

Additional information

Communicated by Toshio Moritani.

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Neto, O.P., Lindheim, H., de Miranda Marzullo, A.C. et al. Long-term adaptations differ for shortening and lengthening contractions. Eur J Appl Physiol 112, 3709–3720 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-011-2293-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-011-2293-5

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