title: Single motor-unit control by normal and cerebral-palsied males.
abstract: Single motor-unit (SMU) control was compared for three ambulatory cerebral-palsied and three neurologically unimpaired subjects. Both groups were similar in their abilities to produce a discrete whole muscle contraction, to isolate and maintain firing of a single motor unit, and to turn a unit on at a visual signal. Unit inter-spike intervals were very similar for both groups. However, the cerebral-palsied subjects showed a consistent inability to inhibit single motor-unit (or whole muscle) activity if the isolated unit had been firing for some time; normal subjects did not show a similar inability.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001676:Biofeedback, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004576:Electromyography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009132:Muscles / Q000294:innervation*