Summary: Direct Gastrocnemius Muscle Stimulation
The last lab exercise was to compare and contrast direct gastrocnemius muscle stimulation against sciatic nerve stimulation. Initial voltage was set to 0.75 volts and increased slowly in increments until a twitch appeared. As a result, the threshold voltage under direct stimulation was found at 2.5 volts. This voltage produced a contractile force of 35.47 grams. Following the discovery of the threshold, the voltage was set 10 times the value from the maximum voltage during the sciatic nerve stimulation. This value was 7.5 volts and the trial resulted in 54.78 grams of force. In comparison to the sciatic nerve stimulation, direct gastrocnemius muscle stimulation required high magnitudes of voltage input to elicit moderate tension strength. As