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Recruiting NCT06627491

Influence of Fast and Slow Imagined Muscle Contractions on Muscle Function or Central Nervous System Properties

No phase Interventional Healthy

For patients and families

In plain language

An automatic summary of structured registry data. It is an orientation aid, not a substitute for the official protocol or a physician assessment.

What is being studied
The protocol lists: Imagined muscle contractions.
Who it may be relevant to
Registry conditions: Healthy. Basic parameters: 18 years — 30 years · All.
What needs checking
Age, condition and sex are only basic indicators. Prior treatment, laboratory values and other mandatory requirements appear in the eligibility criteria below.
Where it takes place
United States
Next step
Save the trial, show it to the treating physician, and confirm current recruitment with the study center. Costs, documents and travel →

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Official title

Does the Speed of Imagined Muscle Contractions Affect Muscle Function and Central Nervous System Excitability?

Overview

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.

Detailed 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 amplitude of motor-evoked potentials and the duration of the resulting silent periods in the bicep brachii to quantify changes in corticospinal excitability and inhibition, respectively. Rapid maximal voluntary isometric contractions will be used to measure changes in rate of torque development, peak torque, and rate of muscle activation.

Interventions

  • Behavioral Imagined muscle contractions
    The intervention involved imagining, with no physical movement, of muscle contractions.

Primary outcome measures

  • Change in rate of torque development as measured by newton-meters per second [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]
  • Change in nervous system excitability as measured by electromyographic waveform aplitude following motor cortex stimulation [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]
Secondary outcome measures (5)
  • Change in isometric bicep strength as measured by newton-meters of torque [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]
  • Change in agonist muscle activation as measured by electromyography amplitude [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]
  • Change in antagonist co-activation as measured by electromyography amplitude [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]
  • Change in rate of agonist muscle activation as measured by electromyography amplitude [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]
  • Change in nervous system inhibition as measured by electromyographic waveform aplitude following motor cortex stimulation [Time frame: Baseline, minute 20]

Eligibility criteria

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 on your responses to the TMS-specific questionnaire
  • Being ambidextrous
  • Although rare, you will be excluded if discernable muscle activation responses are not possible via TMS

Criteria are shown verbatim from the registry (in English). Final eligibility is always assessed by the study center.

Healthy volunteers: Yes

Study design

Allocation
Randomized
Model
Crossover
Masking
Single blind
Primary purpose
Basic science

Study locations

United States · 1 center
  • Kennesaw State University — Kennesaw

Identifiers

NCT: NCT06627491 · MI_KA

Primary sources (government registries)

View this study on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗