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Why this is a CLASSIC PAPER? There are three major reasons why this paper is considered a classic

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Why this is a CLASSIC PAPER?
There are three major reasons why this paper is considered a classic paper. Firstly it was the first paper to directly investigate the functional significance of motor neuron size and was one of a series of five papers published in 1965 linking many different neuromuscular concepts together such as recruitment, usage and motor neuron pool. (cite Amanda paper)
Secondly it was the first paper to establish a set of rules that defined orderly recruitment of motor units coined the size principle. This relatively simple and seemingly logical principle was easy to quantify and is one of the major reasons why this paper has been cited over 1600 times and can be found published in physiology textbooks all around the …show more content…

Collectively these 3 major factors have ensured that Henneman’s pioneering work on muscle control and recruitment will remain classical.

Section 2:

Experimental Aim:
Henneman (1965) investigated the relationship of neuron excitability and its size in the stretch reflex of the triceps surae muscle of the decrebrated cat. His finding lead him to believe there is a set of principles dictating the order of muscle unit recruitment as dictated by size which he coined the size principle. While his work was ground breaking at the time, and as previously mentioned, the size principle has been confirmed many times over the years. It is important to understand exactly the scope and limitations of the size principle. We wanted to extend Henneman’s work by investigating whether the size principle is consistent in the older adult. In their experiment they didn’t indicate the age of the cats only mentioning that they were adults. It is well understood that the ageing process causes a shift in motor unit physiology. Beyond the ages of 60-70 years there is a loss of motor neurons, predominately larger ones with higher recruitment thresholds, which in turn causes a decrease in muscle fibres, specifically the type 2 fibres. Many of the muscle fibres will atrophy and die, however some will be re-innervated by the mainly existing small motor neurons, which results in larger motor

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