Neurobiology of Muscle Fatigue

In reading this volume one should ask what is new and true, and what will lead to new approaches and insight. Clearly, as the topic muscle fatigue is increasingly studied by muscle physiologists, neuroscientists and clinicians, it becomes more difficult to summarize the state of knowledge, even in a volume with 36 chapters. Since a major symposium on the physiology of muscle fatigue in London in 1980 (Porter & Whelan, 1981), much progress has been made in understanding both the intracellular, muscle-fiber mechanisms and, to some extent, mechanisms of CNS control as they relate to muscle fatigue. Some of this progress has been summarized at recent symposia in Paris in 1990 (Atlan et al., 1991 ), and Amsterdam in 1992 (Sargeant & Kernell, 1993). Despite this, we are far from having an equation that will predict the degree of fatigue under a variety of physiological circumstances, although some of the boundary conditions are becoming well established.