Fatigue may be described as the decline in the ability of an individual to maintain a level of performance. However, the issue of fatigue in man is complex due to the various physiological and psychological phenomena which contribute to it. This article is limited to a discussion appertaining to that fatigue associated with changes in the physiological processes, and specifically that which is caused by sustained or repeated muscle contractions. It has long been known that during muscle contractions the frequency spectrum of the myoelectric signal undergoes a shift. Recently, several analyses and investigations have been reported on the applicability of this phenomenon for supplying objective or noninvasive measurements of localized muscle fatigue. The essence and results of pertinent publications are discussed with emphasis on the relationship between the spectral shift of the myoelectric signal, conduction velocity of muscle fibers, pH of the interstitial fluid and blood flow within a muscle.

Myoelectrical manifestations of localized muscular fatigue in humans.

1. The statistical nature of transmitter release during facilitation was studied at single synaptic sites by recording extracellular excitatory junctional potentials from the claw opener muscle in crayfish.

2. At low temperatures, single quanta could be counted in the responses to nerve impulses. The distribution of the number of quanta observed (x) was most accurately described by assuming that x is a binomial random variable.

3. A quantitative estimate was made of the effects of errors in counting quanta due to the simultaneous release of quanta and the release of quanta which were not individually detectable above the noise of the recording system. Such errors of observation cannot account for the deviation of quantal release from a Poisson distribution.

4. Facilitated release occurred in the responses to the second of two closely following nerve impulses and in the responses to successive impulses in a tetanus. In both cases, the increase in the average number of quanta released (m) could be attributed entirely to an increase in the probability (p) that available quanta were released.

5. The results can be interpreted most easily in terms of a model in which the maximum number of releasable quanta is limited by a finite number of discrete release sites within recording distance of the microelectrode. In this model, the binomial parameter n is an estimate of the number of these sites, and the statistical parameter p is a compound probability depending on the rate of re-occupying sites after a nerve discharge and the probability that an impulse activates an occupied site.

https://mcb.berkeley.edu/labs/zucker/PDFs/Zucker_JPhysiol229,787.pdf

Changes in the statistics of transmitter release during facilitation

Myelin basic protein - diverse conformational states of an intrinsically unstructured protein and its roles in myelin assembly and multiple sclerosis

Extracellular potassium accumulation in acute myocardial ischemia

External or internal application of proton on the calcium current was investigated using the whole-cell patch clamp technique in single ventricular cells of the guinea pig. The effect of acid pHo on the calcium current depended on the strength of the buffer in the internal solution. In the presence of 5 mM HEPES in the pipette, external acidification depressed calcium current with the half maximum inhibition of pHo 5.5. When the intracellular pH was buffered strongly to pH 7.2 by 50 mM HEPES within the pipette solution, half maximum inhibition of the calcium current was shifted to the acidic side markedly. When acid was applied in the patch electrode, calcium current was hardly affected by the pH values down to 6.0 in the pipette solution but was depressed by approximately half on further acidification to pH 4.5. When the Na+-H+ exchange system was blocked by superfusing the cell with either amiloride or Na+-deficient solutions (Tris substituted), calcium current was decreased by half at a pipette pH of around 6.5 and was completely and irreversibly blocked at pHpip 6.0. From the above results, we concluded that the calcium current of the ventricular cell is much more sensitive to intracellular protons than extracellular ones.

Walter J. Moore

Papers

The role of protons in nerve conduction

Electrokinetic mechanism of miniature postsynaptic potentials.

An electrochemical model for depolarization of a retinula cell of Limulus by a single photon.

A proteolytic memory element based on the integrating function of the neuron.

Interaction of basic protein and peripheral nerve p2 protein with lipids.