Characteristics of Tetanic Force Produced by the Sternomastoid Muscle of the Rat

Figure 2

Muscle force as a function of passive tension before stimulation. This force-tension curve was normalized by maximal force to illustrate the rate of decline of force at different passive tensions (set up just before electrical stimulation). The nerve was stimulated with 0.1 mA pulses at 200 Hz. The group average is shown. Vertical bars represent standard error of the mean. Nerve stimulation at moderate tension of the muscle (0.08 N) yielded maximal muscle force (0.94 N). The data presented in this and all following figures were collected, when the nerve was stimulated with a 200 ms train of biphasic pulses of 0.2 ms width.