David Burke

Bio: David Burke is an academic researcher from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The author has contributed to research in topics: Reflex & Muscle spindle. The author has an hindex of 89, co-authored 395 publications receiving 24952 citations. Previous affiliations of David Burke include Elsevier & Ege University.

The responses of human muscle spindle endings to vibration of non‐contracting muscles.

Abstract: 1. In micro-electrode recordings from the human peroneal and tibial nerves, the responses of thirty-two primary spindle endings, thirteen secondary spindle endings and three Golgi tendon organs were studied during vibration of the tendons of the receptor-bearing muscles in the leg. The amplitude of the applied vibration was 1-5 mm and the frequency was varied from 20 to 220 Hz. As checked with e.m.g. and torque measurements, the muscles of the leg were relaxed during the sequences analysed. 2. Providing that the vibrator was accurately applied, all endings responded with discharges phase-locked to the vibration cycles, the discharge rates being at the vibration frequency or at subharmonics of that frequency. The response to vibration was of abrupt onset and offset, was maintained for the duration of vibration, and was not subject to fluctuation with changes in attention or with remote muscle contraction. 3. The maximal discharge rate that could be achieved varied from one ending to the next, and increased with the length of the receptor-bearing muscle. For endings driven at their maximal rate an increase in vibration frequency produced a decrease in discharge rates as the ending changed to a subharmonic pattern of response. The converse occurred on decreasing vibration frequency. 4. For any given muscle length, primary endings could generally be driven to higher rates than secondary endings but there was a wide range of responsiveness within each group and a significant overlap between the groups. At medium muscle length, the most responsive primary endings could be driven up to 220 Hz but secondary endings did not reach discharge rates higher than 100 Hz. 5. With combined vibration and passive movements, primary endings exhibited maximal vibration responsiveness during the stretching phases, sometimes firing twice per vibration cycle. During the shortening phases, however, they usually ceased responding to the vibratory stimulus. The vibration responsiveness of secondary endings was not potentiated to the same extent by on-going muscle stretch or reduced to the same extent by on-going muscle shortening. Thus, during shortening, secondary endings may be more responsive than primary endings. 6. The responses of primary endings to tendon taps were reduced during muscle vibration, a reduction which probably contributes to vibration-induced suppression of tendon jerks. Additionally, as the muscle shortened after tendon percussion, there was a transient pause in the response to vibration.

The responses of human muscle spindle endings to vibration during isometric contraction.

Abstract: 1. An human subjects, vibration of amplitude 1-5 mm and frequency 20-220 Hz was applied to the tendons of muscles in the leg to examine the effects on the discharge of primary and secondary endings during manoeuvres designed to alter the level of fusimotor drive. 2. In four experiments, the peroneal nerve was completely blocked with lidocaine proximal to the recording site in order to de-efferent spindle endings temporarily. The responses to muscle stretch and vibration, as seen in multi-unit recordings and in single unit recordings, were similar during the block as in the relaxed state prior to the block. Thus, these experiments provided no evidence for a functionally effective resting fusimotor drive. 3. The responses to vibration of nine primary endings and four secondary endings were examined during isometric voluntary contractions of the receptor-bearing muscles. Providing that the endings were responding submaximally in the relaxed state, voluntary contraction enhanced the response to vibration, suggesting co-activation of the fusimotor system sufficient to compensate for mechanical unloading. Unloading effects were observed during contractions of neighbouring synergistic muscles, indicating a close spatial relationship between the co-activated skeletomotor and fusimotor outflows. 4. Recordings were obtained from ten primary endings and seven secondary endings during isometric reflex contractions resulting from the vibratory stimulus (TVR contractions). For twelve endings, the appearance of the tonic vibration reflex in the receptor-bearing muscle resulted in a significant decrease in the response to vibration, suggesting that the endings were unloaded by the extrafusal contraction. On voluntary suppression of the reflex contraction spindle responses reverted to their previous levels. 5. These results suggest that the tonic vibration reflex, like the tendon jerk reflex, operates predominantly or exclusively on alpha motoneurones and that it does not utilize the same cortically originating efferent pathways as are used in the performance of voluntary contractions.

Threshold tracking techniques in the study of human peripheral nerve.

Abstract: Conventional electrophysiological tests of nerve function focus on the number of conducting fibers and their conduction velocity. These tests are sensitive to the integrity of the myelin sheath, but provide little information about the axonal membrane. Threshold tracking techniques, in contrast, test nerve excitability, which depends on the membrane properties of the axons at the site of stimulation. These methods are sensitive to membrane potential, and to changes in membrane potential caused by activation of ion channels and electrogenic ion pumps, including those under the myelin sheath. This review describes the range of threshold tracking techniques that have been developed for the study of human nerves in vivo: resting threshold is compared with the threshold altered by a change in environment (e.g., ischemia), by a preceding single impulse (e.g., refractoriness, superexcitability) or impulse train, or by a subthreshold current (e.g., threshold electrotonus). Few clinical studies have been reported so far, mainly in diabetic neuropathy and motor neuron disease. Threshold measurements seem well suited for studies of metabolic and toxic neuropathies but insensitive to demyelination. Until suitable equipment becomes more widely available, their full potential is unlikely to be realized.

Monosynaptic and oligosynaptic contributions to human ankle jerk and H-reflex

Abstract: Studies were undertaken in normal subjects to determine whether it is possible for oligosynaptic reflex pathways to affect motoneuron discharge in the ankle jerk and H-reflex of the soleus. It is argued that if the rising phase of the increase in excitability of the soleus motoneuron pool produced by tendon percussion or by electrical stimulation of the peripheral nerve lasts more than a few milliseconds and if the increase in excitability takes several milliseconds to reach the threshold for motoneuron discharge, these reflexes are unlikely to be exclusively monosynaptic. In relaxed subjects, changes in excitability of the soleus motoneuron pool produced by tendon percussion and by electrical stimulation of the tibial nerve were examined using conditioning stimuli just below threshold and a test H-reflex just above threshold for a reflex response. The increase in excitability due to tendon percussion had an average rise time of 10.8 ms and a total duration of approximately 25 ms. With electrical stimulation the rising phase appeared shorter, but it could not be measured accurately due to afferent refractoriness. In single motor units, the rise times of the composite excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs) set up by subthreshold tendon percussion and by subthreshold electrical stimulation of the tibial nerve were estimated from changes in the probability of discharge of voluntarily activated single motor units. Rise times were significantly longer with tendon percussion (mean +/- SD, 7.1 +/- 2.3 ms; n = 34) than with electrical stimulation (2.4 +/- 1.4 ms; n = 32). In four experiments in which a number of motor units were studied using identical mechanical and identical electrical stimuli, the poststimulus time histograms (PSTHs) for each stimulus were pooled to provide an estimate of the rise time of the excitability change in the motoneuron pool. The mean rise times of these four samples were 10.5 ms with mechanical stimulation and 4.5 ms with electrical stimulation. The spontaneous variability in latency of reflexly activated single motor units was 0.8-3.1 ms (average SD, 0.34 ms) in the tendon jerk, and 0.6-1.4 ms (average SD, 0.19 ms) in the H-reflex. Comparison of these figures with the measurements of rise time given above suggests that the composite EPSPs are larger than the background synaptic noise. With six motor units, the timing of reflex discharge in the tendon jerk when the subject was relaxed was compared with the timing of the change in probability of discharge due to apparently identical percussion when the units were activated voluntarily.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Principles of Neural Science

Abstract: I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Heart rate variability: Origins, methods, and interpretive caveats

Abstract: Components of heart rate variability have attracted considerable attention in psychology and medicine and have become important dependent measures in psychophysiology and behavioral medicine. Quantification and interpretation of heart rate variability, however, remain complex issues and are fraught with pitfalls. The present report (a) examines the physiological origins and mechanisms of heart rate variability, (b) considers quantitative approaches to measurement, and (c) highlights important caveats in the interpretation of heart rate variability. Summary guidelines for research in this area are outlined, and suggestions and prospects for future developments are considered.

Spinal and Supraspinal Factors in Human Muscle Fatigue

Abstract: Muscle fatigue is an exercise-induced reduction in maximal voluntary muscle force. It may arise not only because of peripheral changes at the level of the muscle, but also because the central nervous system fails to drive the motoneurons adequately. Evidence for “central” fatigue and the neural mechanisms underlying it are reviewed, together with its terminology and the methods used to reveal it. Much data suggest that voluntary activation of human motoneurons and muscle fibers is suboptimal and thus maximal voluntary force is commonly less than true maximal force. Hence, maximal voluntary strength can often be below true maximal muscle force. The technique of twitch interpolation has helped to reveal the changes in drive to motoneurons during fatigue. Voluntary activation usually diminishes during maximal voluntary isometric tasks, that is central fatigue develops, and motor unit firing rates decline. Transcranial magnetic stimulation over the motor cortex during fatiguing exercise has revealed focal cha...

Corticocortical inhibition in human motor cortex.

Abstract: 1. In ten normal volunteers, a transcranial magnetic or electric stimulus that was subthreshold for evoking an EMG response in relaxed muscles was used to condition responses evoked by a later, suprathreshold magnetic or electric test shock. In most experiments the test stimulus was given to the lateral part of the motor strip in order to evoke EMG responses in the first dorsal interosseous muscle (FDI). 2. A magnetic conditioning stimulus over the hand area of cortex could suppress responses produced in the relaxed FDI by a suprathreshold magnetic test stimulus at interstimulus intervals of 1-6 ms. At interstimulus intervals of 10 and 15 ms, the test response was facilitated. 3. Using a focal magnetic stimulus we explored the effects of moving the conditioning stimulus to different scalp locations while maintaining the magnetic test coil at one site. If the conditioning coil was moved anterior or posterior to the motor strip there was less suppression of test responses in the FDI. In contrast, stimulation at the vertex could suppress FDI responses by an amount comparable to that seen with stimulation over the hand area. With the positions of the two coils reversed, conditioning stimuli over the hand area suppressed responses evoked in leg muscles by vertex test shocks. 4. The intensity of both conditioning and test shocks influenced the amount of suppression. Small test responses were more readily suppressed than large responses. The best suppression was seen with small conditioning stimuli (0.7-0.9 times motor threshold in relaxed muscle); increasing the intensity to motor threshold or above resulted in less suppression or even facilitation. 5. Two experiments suggested that the suppression was produced by an action on cortical, rather than spinal excitability. First, a magnetic conditioning stimulus over the hand area failed to produce any suppression of responses evoked in active hand muscles by a small (approximately 200 V, 50 microsecond time constant) anodal electric test shock. Second, a vertex conditioning shock had no effect on forearm flexor H reflexes even though responses in the same muscles produced by magnetic cortical test shocks were readily suppressed at appropriate interstimulus intervals. 6. Small anodal electric conditioning stimuli were much less effective in suppressing magnetic test responses than either magnetic or cathodal electric conditioning shocks.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)