Nerve and muscle twitch recruitment: External electrode stimulation of a nerve or muscle can lead to a twitch so long as the stimulus voltage is above the muscle or nerve’s threshold value. Electrical stimulation works to open ion channels without the muscle cells, leading to the firing of action potentials. After some time, however, a maximal stimulus voltage will be found. Voltages above this lead to no significant increase in the amplitude of the twitch. Our expectation was that twitch amplitude would increase steadily starting at threshold stimulus and level off at the maximal stimulus. These expectations were based on the results we obtained in previous labs as well as a basic understanding of action potentials, and they were met in this …show more content…
Our findings showed a slight increase in contraction amplitude when the muscle was exposed to 10 mM of caffeine, but a decreased contraction amplitude upon exposure to 20 mM of caffeine (Fig. 6). The duration of contraction did not change at all throughout the experiment. Our results were far from what we expected and forced us to deem our hypothesis incorrect. The results differ from previous studies, which state that exposing skeletal muscle to caffeine increases the duration and strength of contractions by opening calcium ion channels (Olorunshola and Achie 2011). It has also been suggested that caffeine increases contractions be activating the calcium release channels in the sarcoplasmic reticulum of skeletal muscle (Rousseau et al. 1988). In the case of our experiment, it is possible that the muscle was not exposed to caffeine for a duration long enough for proper absorption to occur. Another possible reason for our disagreement with previous studies could be the dosage of caffeine. In the future, the experiment should be performed once more with one or both of these things tweaked in an attempt to find the expected
Websites now are endless compared to what it was 8 years ago. There are far too many websites and it’s impossible to have looked at every single site. The website I want to talk about is Twitch. It has grew a lot in the past 6 years of when it was officially launched. Twitch is a live streaming website that anyone can watch and take a part in. People usually watch their favorite streamers to learn the game and get entertainment out of it. Twitch now is very successful because of its easy to use website, giving opportunities to everyone, having tournaments on it and the growing.
Twitch is a live streaming video platform owned by Twitch Interactive, a subordinate of Amazon. Twitch is a spinoff of Justin.tv. A spin off is the creation of an independent company by a parent company. The parent company, Justin.tv, a general interest streaming platform was launched in 2007 by Justin Kan and Emmett Shear. This site was divided into different content categories. It’s gaming category quickly became the most popular content on the site. In 2014, Justin.tv’s parent company shut down and rebranded as Twitch Interactive to represent a shift in focus to the gaming category. Twitch has been financially supported by investments of venture capital, capital invested in a new or expanding business. The company became profitable in correlation with the shutdown of its direct competitor Own3d.tv. Twitch has become the most popular e-sports streaming service by a large margin, referred to as a monopoly on the market. On August 25th, 2014 Amazon bought Twitch Interactive for $970 million dollars. Twitch Prime services those with Amazon Memberships. These users can use Twitch ad-free, they receive video games published by Amazon’s game division as well as in-game content for popular games streamed on twitch, and they also get one free channel membership every 30-days.
Caffeine’s mental appeal is just as trendy as its physical purpose. Caffeine has been proven to stimulate the central nervous system. Caffeine stimulates the Central Nervous System at high levels, like the medulla and cortex, and even has the ability to reach the spinal cord in larger doses. The effect of caffeine in the cortex is a clearer thought process and also can rid the body of fatigue. This gives people a greater ability of concentration for 1-3 hours. For athletes competing in sports where quick thinking and rapid reactions are necessary, caffeine can provide a huge edge. However, these results are much more inconsistent than the experiments done on caffeine in endurance sports. (http://www.garynull.com/Documents/CaffeineEffects.htm)
How does caffeine work in the body to create such effects? Caffeine is absorbed quickly from the GI tract, and is significantly elevated in the blood in 15 minutes, with peak concentration at 60 minutes. It passes through the blood-brain barrier and affects brain centers leading to an increase in alertness and decrease in fatigue and drowsiness. It stimulates the nervous system, affects respiration, boosts energy levels and thereby is beneficial at enhancing sports performance. Caffeine helps to mobilize fat stores so the body can use it as a primary fuel source, thus sparing glycogen. The delay in depletion of muscle glycogen
In my tests I started by applying no stimulus voltage to the muscle and measured the muscle length, active force, passive force, its total force and length of the latent period. As I slowly increased the amount stimulus voltage from applied to the muscle 0.0V up to 10.0V, I was able to notice some small change in the muscle itself. Although the length of the muscle never changed throughout the experiment (always starting at 75mm), the amount of force it exerted did. The table illustrates that with an increase in voltage, the amount of grams of force the muscle produced increased along with it. Passive force stayed at zero throughout the experiment because I used a stimulus to activate the muscle contraction. Lastly, I compared the duration of the latent period. As the
caffeine’s effect on the body varies from person to person and depending on what weight
In time trial studies with cyclists, experimenters have found that caffeine improves the distances cyclists can ride, producing a performance enhancing effect (Costill et al., 1978; McNaughton et al., 2008; Spriet et al., 1992). This study draws on prior work on the performance enhancing effects of caffeine on exercise (Cox et al., 2002; McNaughton et al., 2008; Pesta et al., 2013) to examine the effects of caffeine on pulse and respiration rate. Caffeine is used by many athletes and individuals to increase the rate of aerobic respiration while performing exercise (Pesta et al., 2013). This study is hence useful in its investigation of the effects of caffeine on exercise performance as it provides more information on the ergogenic nature of caffeine. This study aims to determine the effect of caffeine on pulse rate and respiration rate after the performance of a modified version of the Harvard step test. Subjects’ pulse and respiration rates were measured, and then subjects consumed 250mL of either caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee containing 180mg of caffeine
Effects of Caffeine Supplementation On Strength and Muscular Performance in Recreationally Trained Males Student Researcher: Gregory Grabowski Allied Health Sciences University of Connecticut Abstract: Pre-workout and caffeine containing supplementation has become very popular for weight lifters to increase focus, strength and muscle growth. There are many side effects from consuming large amounts of caffeine such as anxiety, nervousness and insomnia. The purpose of this study is to determine whether caffeine increases strength in recreationally trained males. The experiment will utilize a randomized, double-blinded, crossover design in which 30 recreationally trained males between the ages of 20 and 34 years will participate in. They will
Interestingly, caffeine is the most loved and widely used stimulants in America. According to the CNBC’s news reports, it stated Americans ingested their daily caffeine intake to about 400 million cups (Wapner, 2011). In fact, caffeine can be found in a variety of dietary sources, such as coffee, tea, chocolate, some soda and energy drinks, as well as some nonprescription medications. It is considered as a legal drug and consumed by all people in the society. Some people believed that that caffeine is good for healthy adults because it keep them awake, boost up their memories, as well as improve their metabolism and mental alertness. However, some people believed that caffeine brings negative
The nerve was laid across the wire electrodes (in contact with the active connections). Part 1: Determination of threshold voltage and maximal CAP amplitude The nerve was given a series of electrical stimuli in increasing amplitude. Then, the threshold voltage for the nerve and the voltage required for maximum CAP amplitude were calculated. The Macro: Threshold Voltage was selected from the Chart window. The nerve was automatically stimulated by the chart and the data was recorded for 1.1 seconds. Part 2: Determination of refractory period The nerve was stimulated with a series of pulses by the PowerLab. The pulse interval was decreased in each block of data. The relative and absolute refractory periods of the nerve were determined through these recordings. The minimum stimulus voltage required to elicit a maximal CAP from your nerve was determined. The Macro: Refractory voltage was selected from the Chart window. The voltage that is nearest the stimulus intensity used was chosen. A series of 15 data blocks with duration of 10 milliseconds each were recorded by the Chart. Part 3: Determination of nerve conduction velocity The velocity of the CAP as it travels down the nerve was
Fig. 6. This is a typical record from an experiment in which a train of 5 identical dual-pulses were applied to the nerve. The CT interval for the above recording was 120 ms; Fig. 2B was taken from a portion of this record, specifically, the twitches produced by the 5th stimulus. In the actual experiment, a series of trains were applied. There was a 2 min rest between trains, and each train corresponded to a different CT interval.! !Visual inspection of the 5 sequential contractions suggests a !dynamic interplay of factors affecting transmitter release: !! !!The conditioning twitches trend downward, indicating ! !depression.! !!Concomitantly, the test twitches trend upward, as do the ! !resultant T/C ratios, indicating facilitation.! !Control measurements, using the same series of stimulus !trains, revealed T/C ratios that were close to unity. ! ! !! Using relatively simple muscle twitch measurements, we have observed increases in synaptic efficacy in frog sciatic nerve/ gastrocnemius muscles that have undergone synaptic fatigue in the presence of curare. A new stimulus protocol is described in which
The electrical impulses are used for stimulating the contraction of muscles which is known as Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS), also known as neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) or electromyostimulation. The muscle tissue was stimulated by the impulses produced by a device and were delivered on the skin through the electrodes close to the targeted stimulated muscle. These electrodes are the pads that will adhere to the skin of the animal. The stimulated muscles contract by the impulses which act as an action potential coming from the central nervous system. It is shown in some studies that the electrical stimulation has the ability to increase the strength.1 Therefore, it can be used to treat the damaged muscles. It has been utilized as a potential for strength training tool in healthy subjects, a rehabilitation and preventive tool for patients with mobility defects, a testing tool for the neural and/or muscular function in vivo, and a post-exercise recovery tool for athletes.2 The number of electrical stimulation sessions varies across muscle rehabilitation protocols.3
Even though there is vast research concluding caffeine improves cognitive performance, Jacobson and Thurman-Lacey (1992) tested the effect of caffeine on both caffeine-naïve and caffeine-familiar participant’s performance skills. Their findings highlighted the negative effects of the consumption of caffeine; with evidence suggesting caffeine can be detrimental to selective motor skills, especially when the participants where native to the use of caffeine. Additionally, there is also conflicting evidence for the effects of caffeine on short-term exercise. A meta-analysis by van Duinen, Lorist and Zijdewind (2005) raised contradictory results, with some studies concluding caffeine consumption leads to increased endurance (Jackman et al. 1996; Kalmar & Cafarelli 1999; Plaskett & Cafarelli 2001 cited in van Duinen et al., 2005)
In addition to the benefits caffeine has on the body, there have been studies completed to see the effect of caffeine on the performance of athletes especially in terms of increasing endurance. Many athletes try to improve their endurance through various methods such as eating high carb meals prior to competitions. Some athletes also drink large amounts of caffeine in order to improve their endurance through energy drinks or caffeinated beverages hoping to eliminate the fatigue from the sport. The results of some studies have shown that ingesting caffeine prior to exercising in a sport will extend endurance in moderate aerobic activity; other studies showed that caffeine consumption on elite distance runners and swimmers can increase their performance times. Even though there are some studies to show effects on endurance, another study showed that caffeine did not produce any effect on maximal muscular force when studying voluntary and electrically-stimulated muscle actions. However, the data gained from that study did show that it has the effect of reducing muscle fatigue on muscles during repetitive motions. Furthermore, caffeine does have documented positive effects to improve performance. Because of the effect of caffeine, the International Olympic Committee banned athletes from performing with 12 mg/mL or more of caffeine in urine tests. In order to have this much caffeine in
Caffeine is a natural stimulant which is commonly used in sport for increasing heart rate via the nervous system. Anaerobic performance is when an exercise or activity is done in limited volumes of oxygen this can be examples such as jumping, sprinting and the overall effects it has on sports. There are very little articles in which write about the effects of caffeine on anaerobic performance in which most articles talk about 3mg/kg, however, there is very little research on the effects of using lower dosage on anaerobic performance. The main purpose of this text will determine the effect of caffeine on anaerobic respiration and the effect it has on performance