Premovement silent period in fast movement initiation.
Premovement inhibitory processes were studied in human subjects performing ballistic elbow movements in a self-paced or reaction time situation. The experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that there is an interdependence between a preparatory disfacilitatory process at the motoneurone level and an impending phasic motoneurone activation. The results indicate that in ballistic movements there is a positive relation between extent of premovement depression of tonic activity and subsequent phasic innervation. The results suggest that in high speed movements where a maximal number of motor units have to be recruited, those motoneurones which are already tonically active have to be released from tonic activity for optimal synchrony.
D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D004551:Elbow Joint / Q000294:innervation; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D007700:Kinetics; D009043:Motor Activity; D009068:Movement; D009132:Muscles / Q000294:innervation*