Effect of knee angle on neuromuscular assessment of plantar flexor muscles: A reliability study

Merlet, Angèle N.; Cattagni, Thomas; Cornu, Christophe; Jubeau, Marc

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0195220

Cited by 20 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 57 publications

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“…The percentage of motor neurons recruited by electrical stimulation (H max /M max ) was trending higher in HFD animals, but only 10‐week HFD males showing significantly larger H max /M max ratios. The reliability of the H max /M max measure can be influenced by experimental factors, including joint position (Merlet et al ) and anesthetic state (Ho and Waite ). These factors were controlled as much as possible, but day to day variation could have existed and limited our ability to see larger group differences.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet‐induced obesity decreases rate‐dependent depression in the Hoffmann’s reflex in adult mice

et al. 2019

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Obesity is associated with balance and motor control deficits. We have recently shown that Group Ia muscle spindle afferents, the sensory arm of the muscle stretch reflex, are less responsive in mice fed a high‐fat diet. Here we test the hypothesis that reflex excitability to sensory information from Group Ia muscle spindle afferents is altered in a mouse model of diet‐induced obesity. We measured the anesthetized Hoffmann’s or H‐reflex, the electrical analog of the muscle stretch reflex. Adult mice of both sexes were fed a control diet (CD; 10% kcal from fat) or a high‐fat diet (HFD; 60% kcal from fat) for 5, 10, or 15 weeks. We used three quantitative measures of H‐reflex excitability: (1) H‐reflex latency; (2) the percentage of motor neurons recruited from electrical stimulation of Group Ia muscle spindle afferents (Hmax/Mmax); and (3) rate‐dependent depression (RDD), the decrease in H‐reflex amplitude to high frequency stimulation (20 stimuli at 5 Hz). A HFD did not significantly alter H latency (P = 0.16) or Hmax/Mmax ratios (P = 0.06), but RDD was significantly lower in HFD compared to CD groups (P < 0.001). Interestingly, HFD males exhibited decreased RDD compared to controls only after 5 and 10 weeks of feeding, but females showed progressive decreases in RDD that were only significant at 10 and 15 weeks on the HFD. These results suggest that high‐fat feeding increases H‐reflex excitability. Future studies are needed to determine whether these changes alter muscle stretch reflex strength and/or balance and to determine the underlying mechanism(s).

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Diet‐induced obesity decreases rate‐dependent depression in the Hoffmann’s reflex in adult mice

et al. 2019

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“…Maximum gastrocnemius electromyographic muscle activity decreases with a decrease in knee joint angle, but is also a function of muscle contractile behavior. This can explain the lack of taping effect, as the maximum flexion in the knee angle had minimum effect on gastrocnemius flexion dynamics in our study (Merlet et al, 2018). Our findings support the use of non-linear measures to investigate short time interval dynamic data as is the case of ankle and knee angle dynamics, CoP.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 51%

The Effect of Ankle Support on Lower Limb Kinematics During the Y-Balance Test Using Non-linear Dynamic Measures

et al. 2019

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Background: According to dynamical systems theory, an increase in movement variability leads to greater adaptability, which may be related to the number of feedforward and feedback mechanisms associated with movement and postural control. Using Higuchi dimension (HDf) to measure complexity of the signal and Singular Value Decomposition Entropy (SvdEn) to measure the number of attributes required to describe the biosignal, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of kinesiology and strapping tape on center of pressure dynamics, myoelectric muscle activity, and joint angle during the Y balance test. Method: Forty-one participants between 18 and 34 years of age completed five trials of the Y balance test without tape, with strapping tape (ST), and with kinesiology tape (KT) in a cross-sectional study. The mean and standard errors were calculated for the center of pressure, joint angles, and muscle activities with no tape, ST, and KT. The results were analyzed with a repeated measures ANOVA model ( P A < 0.05) fit and followed by Tukey post hoc analysis from the R package with probability set at P < 0.05. Results: SvdEn indicated significantly decreased complexity in the anterior-posterior ( p < 0.05) and internal-external rotation ( p < 0.001) direction of the ankle, whilst HDf for both ST and KT identified a significant increase in ankle dynamics when compared to no tape ( p < 0.0001) in the mediolateral direction. Taping also resulted in a significant difference in gastrocnemius muscle myoelectric muscle activity between ST and KT ( p = 0.047). Conclusion: Complexity of ankle joint dynamics increased in the sagittal plane of movement with no significant changes in the possible number of physiological attributes. In contrast, the number of possible physiological attributes contributing to ankle movement was significantly lower in the frontal and transverse planes. Simply adhering tape to the skin is sufficient to influence neurological control and adaptability of movement. In addition, adaptation of ankle joint dynamics to retain postural stability during a Y Balance test is achieved differently depending on the direction of movement.

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“…Using Microsoft Excel, VA was calculated using the ITT method (VA ITT) [ 1 ], an adjusted ITT method (VA Adj_ITT ) which accounts for variations in force at the time of stimulation [ 43 , 55 ], and the CAR method (VA CAR ) [ 17 ] (see calculations below).

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…VA measurements provide a method to indirectly determine the neural drive to a muscle [ 4 ] and have therefore been used to gauge the effects of interventions such as neuromuscular electrical stimulation [ 22 , 23 ], intramuscular needling [ 24 ], endurance training in people with multiple sclerosis [ 25 ], and neuromodulatory interventions, in healthy participants [ 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ] and participants with stroke [ 31 , 32 ]. A number of studies have explored the reliability of VA measures in the healthy knee extensors [ 20 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 ] and ankle plantar flexors [ 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ], using either the ITT [ 34 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 ], CAR [ 33 , 35 , 36 , 40 ], or a combination of both methods [ 20 ], and the majority have demonstrated good within- or between-session reliability (ICCs > 0.8 [ 36 , 37 , 38 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ] or coefficients of variation <5% [ 20 , …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reliability of Tibialis Anterior Muscle Voluntary Activation Using the Interpolated Twitch Technique and the Central Activation Ratio in People with Stroke

et al. 2021

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Voluntary activation (VA) is measured by applying supramaximal electrical stimulation to a muscle during a maximal voluntary contraction (MVC). The amplitude of the evoked muscle twitch is used to determine any VA deficit, and indicates incomplete central neural drive to the motor units. People with stroke experience VA deficits and greater levels of central fatigue, which is the decrease in VA that occurs following exercise. This study investigated the between-session reliability of VA and central fatigue of the tibialis anterior muscle (TA) in people with chronic stroke (n = 12), using the interpolated twitch technique (ITT), adjusted-ITT, and central activation ratio (CAR) methods. On two separate sessions, supramaximal electrical stimulation was applied to the TA when it was at rest and maximally activated, at the start and end of a 30-s isometric dorsiflexor MVC. The most reliable measures of VA were obtained using the CAR calculation on transformed data, which produced an ICC of 0.92, and a lower bound confidence interval in the good range (95% CI 0.77 to 0.98). Reliability was lower for the CAR calculation on non-transformed data (ICC 0.82, 95% CI 0.63 to 0.91) and the ITT and adjusted-ITT calculations on transformed data (ICCs 0.82, 95% CIs 0.51 to 0.94), which had lower bound confidence intervals in the moderate range. The two ITT calculations on non-transformed data demonstrated the poorest reliability (ICCs 0.62, 95% CI 0.25 to 0.74). Central fatigue measures demonstrated very poor reliability. Thus, the reliability for VA in people with chronic stroke ranged from good to poor, depending on the calculation method and statistical analysis method, whereas the reliability for central fatigue was very poor.

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Effect of knee angle on neuromuscular assessment of plantar flexor muscles: A reliability study

Cited by 20 publications

References 57 publications

Diet‐induced obesity decreases rate‐dependent depression in the Hoffmann’s reflex in adult mice

Diet‐induced obesity decreases rate‐dependent depression in the Hoffmann’s reflex in adult mice

The Effect of Ankle Support on Lower Limb Kinematics During the Y-Balance Test Using Non-linear Dynamic Measures

Reliability of Tibialis Anterior Muscle Voluntary Activation Using the Interpolated Twitch Technique and the Central Activation Ratio in People with Stroke

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