The mechanical properties of relaxing muscle
The mechanical properties of relaxing muscle
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放松肌肉的力学特性
DOI:
10.1113/jphysiol.1960.sp006467
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发表时间:
1960
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
D. Wilkie
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
B. R. Jewell;D. Wilkie
The response of a muscle to stimulation is classically divided into two phases: contraction and relaxation. The mechanical properties of the muscle in the first phase have been extensively studied (for references, see Jewell & Wilkie, 1958) and much is known about the way in which tension is developed and work is done, but the second phase is much less clearly understood. A. V. Hill (1949b) defined relaxation simply in terms of the external mechanical changes in the muscle, as 'the process by which the muscle returns, after contraction, to its initial length or tension'. Originally our interest in relaxation was aroused by the marked difference between the time courses of isotonic and of isometric twitches. For instance, in Fig. 1, one is confronted by the apparently paradoxical situation that after having lifted a load of 3 g wt. the muscle has completely relaxed at a time when it could have borne tension of 5 g wt. under isometric conditions. Admittedly, with small loads like this, the situation is complicated by an additional factor, for in the isotonic case the muscle has shortened appreciably. However, even with large loads, where the isotonic shortening is much less, mechanical activity has apparently ended at a time when the isometrically contracting muscle is still capable of bearing a considerable tension.