Congratulation to Moritz Gerlich for finishing his Master’s Thesis!
Congratulations to Moritz Gerlich for completing his master’s thesis on “Characterization of Premotor Silent Periods in the Tibialis Anterior”!
Moritz investigated the so-called premotor silent period, a brief absence of EMG activity of the muscle of less than 200ms duration that precedes rapid contractions. This phenomenon was studied by evaluating its effects on subsequent contractions, its influence on motor unit activity, and the extent to which study participants could gain voluntary control over its occurrence through EMG feedback.
Moritz found that the premotor silent period can be trained if the subject did not have it previously. In addition, the premotor silent period can be voluntarily suppressed if desired. The advantage of such a premotor silent period is that the rate of force development is higher. Thus, a higher force can be exerted in a short time. This could be relevant to many sports applications.
We thank Moritz for his great work in our lab and wish him all the best for his future!