Control and Training of Individual Motor Units

Journal/Book: Reprinted from Science August 2 1963 Vol. 141 No. 3579 pages 440-441. 1963;

Abstract: J. V. BASMAJIAN Departmentof Anatomy Queen's University Kingston Ontario Abstract. Experiments clearly demonstrate that with the help of auditory and visual cues man can single out motor units and control their isolated contractions. Experiments on the training of this control interpreted as the training of descending pathways to single anterior horn cells provide a new glimpse of the fineness of conscious motor controls. After training subjects can recall into activity different single motor units by an effort of will while inhibiting the activity of neighbors. Some learn such exquisite control that they soon can produce rhythms of contraction in one unit imitating drum rolls etc. The quality of control over individual anterior horn cells may determine rates of learning. It is a commonplace Observation that very gentle contractions of skeletal muscles recruit only a few motor units and that on relaxation human beings can promptly repress all neuromuscular activity in large areas under voluntary control (1) . However little attention has been paid to the fine voluntary control of individual motor units. In 1960 Harrison and Mortensen (2) reported that subjects were able to maintain isolated activity of several different motor units in the tibialis anterior as recorded from surface electrodes and confirmed by needle electrodes. The implications of this finding led to an intensive systematic investigation with special indwelling electrodes. schö

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