Does the Speed of Imagined Muscle Contractions Affect Muscle Function and Central Nervous System Excitability?
Kennesaw State University
Summary
The goal of this randomized clinical trial is to learn if imagining fast or slow muscle contractions causes different responses for nervous system excitability and muscle function in young, healthy males and females in. The main questions are: Does imagining fast muscle contractions cause greater nervous system excitability compared to imagining slow muscle contractions? Does imagining fast muscle contractions increase muscle function compared to imagining slow muscle contractions? A control condition (rest) will be compared with two intervention conditions: imagining fast and imagining slow conditions, to determine if the fast and slow increase outcomes more than control and if fast has the greatest response. Participants will: * Attend 4 laboratory visits * Perform 50 imagined contractions fast or slow, but with no physical movement * Physical muscle contractions and non-invasive brain stimulation would be completed before and after each condition.
Description
Participants will complete 4 laboratory visits in a randomized order, including a familiarization session, a control condition, and 2 conditions involving imaginary muscle contractions. During visits involving imaginary muscle contractions, participants will complete 2 sets of 25 repetitions of either fast (i.e., less than 1 second to peak torque increase torque as fast as possible) or slow (i.e., 3 seconds to peak torque) isometric elbow flexions. Before and after each condition, single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation will be delivered to the primary motor cortex to measure the amplit…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18–30 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Be between the ages of 18 - 30 * Healthy (no medical conditions) * If female, must be taking the same monophasic oral contraceptive for the past 6 months * Have a body mass index between 18.5 - 30 kg/m2 * Have not performed structured cardiovascular or resistance exercise in past 3 years * Be right-handed * Not currently taking stimulants, antipsychotic, anxiety, or depression medications * Have not suffered an upper extremity musculoskeletal injury within the past year Exclusion Criteria: * If transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is not deemed appropriate depending…
Interventions
- BehavioralImagined muscle contractions
The intervention involved imagining, with no physical movement, of muscle contractions.
Location
- Kennesaw State UniversityKennesaw, Georgia