Ph.D. Scholarship Université Côte d’Azur (Nice, France)
Fatigue and performance during eccentric exercise: the role of kinesthesia
The Université Côte d’Azur (Nice, France) is offering a fully funded 3-year Ph.D. scholarship in the field of neuromuscular physiology related to human movement sciences.
The Université Côte d’Azur is a recently created institution of higher education on the French Riviera. Université Côte d’Azur aims to develop a new university model based on interactions between disciplines, coordination between research, teaching, and innovation, and strong partnerships with the private sector and local authorities. Université Côte d’Azur won the “IDEX” award from the French government, placing it among the top 10 excellent, comprehensive universities in France.
During the Ph.D., the successful applicant will become part of a unique training and research environment to conduct her/his work in the multidisciplinary laboratory of “Motricité Humaine, Expertise, Sport, Santé” (LAMHESS) in Nice under the supervision of Pr. Serge Colson and Dr. Florian Monjo.
Applicants should have a background in one or several of the following research fields: neuromuscular physiology, neurophysiology, integrated physiology, exercise physiology. As a Ph.D. student, the applicant will be responsible for:
– Collecting and analyzing neuromuscular function data (EMG, electrical stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation; kinesthesia);
– Independently carrying out research and completing a Ph.D. dissertation within three years;
– Reporting the results in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and conferences.
Essential requirements for this Ph.D. position are: excellent grades, the ability to learn, understand and apply new physiological concepts and experimental methodologies from different disciplines, a strong motivation as well as the willingness to work in a team.
Fluency in French is not mandatory but the candidate must be willing to learn French during her/his Ph.D. and an intermediate level in English (or higher) is expected.
The starting date is fall 2019. Applications are accepted until June 24, 2019. Short-listed candidates will be asked to prepare an interview for the hiring committee, composed of members from the doctoral school in Human Movement Sciences. Interviews will take place on July 02-04, 2019 in Marseille (France). Net salary is approximately 1500€ (not including possible extra income from teaching assistance) and includes a health insurance package. Professional expenses (e.g. experiments, hardware, software, travel, publications) will be covered by the hosting laboratory.
Applicants should contact Pr. Serge Colson (serge.colson@univ-cotedazur.fr) to prepare their application. A cover letter with a statement of research interests, CV, relevant certificates (degrees and grades), publications (if any), and the name and contact of at least one reference should be attached to the email in one merged PDF. This document can be either in French or in English.
More information: Laboratory of “Motricité Humaine, Expertise, Sport, Santé”: http://unice.fr/laboratoires/lamhess Université Côte d’Azur : http://univ-cotedazur.fr/en Doctoral School in Human Movement Sciences: https://ecole-doctorale-463.univ-amu.fr/fr
Project summary
Fatigue and performance during eccentric exercise: the role of kinesthesia
Some phenomena associated with eccentric muscular contractions have not yet found a satisfactory explanation in the literature and the underlying mechanisms remain not fully identified, especially during submaximal muscular contractions performed in most activities of daily living, or during sport performance.
Overall, muscles that work eccentrically can produce much greater peak force levels than concentric or isometric contractions. They require less energy production per unit of force and they generally remain stronger after repetitive eccentric contractions (i.e., « fatigue-resistant »). However, eccentric muscle contractions have also been associated with increased risk of muscle injury, important variability in force production and exhibit specific neural activation strategy by the central nervous system (CNS). Mechanisms at the supra-spinal and spinal levels are involved in the generation of this specific modulation observed during eccentric contractions, but the inhibition appears to occur mainly at the spinal level while the descending pathways of the supra-spinal centers aim to compensate this inhibition. Although presynaptic and postsynaptic motor neuron mechanisms may also influence force production, these mechanisms remain unknown.
Eccentric exercise also acutely affects proprioception, especially the senses of position and force. It is assumed that these alterations are predominantly generated within the brain but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear and have, to our knowledge, never been specifically questioned.
In that regard, this Ph.D. scholarship will attempt to:
– determine the central mechanisms associated with eccentric-related proprioceptive alterations,
– identify the modulations of these mechanisms after a training session (i.e., repeated bout effect) and after training periods,
– test the influence of specific equipment (e.g., clothing, footwear…) on the proprioceptive modulations
Keywords: corticospinal pathways; proprioception; fatigue; contraction intensity;
Relevant bibliography (not exhaustive):
Allen TJ, Leung M, Proske U. The effect of fatigue from exercise on human limb position sense. J Physiol. 2010;588(Pt 8):1369-77.
Allen TJ, Proske U. Effect of muscle fatigue on the sense of limb position and movement. Exp Brain Res. 2006;170(1):30-8.
Duchateau J, Enoka RM. Neural control of lengthening contractions. J Exp Biol. 2016;219(Pt 2):197-204.
Givoni NJ, Pham T, Allen TJ, Proske U. The effect of quadriceps muscle fatigue on position matching at the knee. J Physiol. 2007;584(Pt 1):111-9.
Proske U. Kinesthesia: the role of muscle receptors. Muscle Nerve. 2006;34(5):545-58.
Torres R, Vasques J, Duarte JA, Cabri JM. Knee proprioception after exercise-induced muscle damage. Int J Sports Med. 2010;31(6):410-5.
Tsay A, Allen TJ, Leung M, Proske U. The fall in force after exercise disturbs position sense at the human forearm. Exp Brain Res. 2012;222(4):415-25.
