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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Sep 1.
Published in final edited form as: Acta Physiol (Oxf). 2015 May 28;215(1):58–71. doi: 10.1111/apha.12524

Figure 2. Neuromuscular activation and resting twitch (RT) characteristics.

Figure 2

Panel A: Illustrates the in vivo experimental setup. Panel B presents example tracings of the superimposed twitch technique utilized to determine muscle voluntary activation in legs (quadriceps, Q) and arms (elbow flexors, EF). The superimposed twitches (arrows) were imposed at the highest volitional steady-state torque. Representative examples of RT torque-time curves from Q and EF are illustrated in Panel C. Panels D–I document muscle activation, as determined by the superimposed twitch technique, RT peak torque, and RT specific force, respectively, in healthy young (YG), mobile oldest-old (OM), and immobile oldest-old (OI). Data in Panels D–I are presented as mean ± S.E.; * Significantly different from young subjects; † significantly different from OM subjects. ‡ significant within-group difference between EF and Q.