Endurance-exercise training adaptations in spinal motoneurones: potential functional relevance to locomotor output and assessment in humans

It is clear from non-human animal work that spinal motoneurones undergo endurance training (chronic) and locomotor (acute) related changes in their electrical properties and thus their ability to fire action potentials in response to synaptic input. The functional implications of these changes, however, are speculative. In humans, data suggests that similar chronic and acute changes in motoneurone excitability may occur, though the work is limited due to technical constraints. To examine the potential influence of chronic changes in human motoneurone excitability on the acute changes that occur during locomotor output, we must develop more sophisticated recording techniques or adapt our current methods. In this review, we briefly discuss chronic and acute changes in motoneurone excitability arising from non-human and human work. We then discuss the potential interaction effects of chronic and acute changes in motoneurone excitability and the potential impact on locomotor output. Finally, we discuss the use of high-density surface electromyogram recordings to examine human motor unit firing patterns and thus, indirectly, motoneurone excitability. The assessment of single motor units from high-density recording is mainly limited to tonic motor outputs and minimally dynamic motor output such as postural sway. Adapting this technology for use during locomotor outputs would allow us to gain a better understanding of the potential functional implications of endurance training-induced changes in human motoneurone excitability on motor output.