Neuromuscular facilitation (NF) is a technique developed in the 1940s-50s to aid rehabilitation by enhancing range of motion. NF uses stretching to optimize motor performance and rehabilitation by making movement easier. It works by facilitating the neuromuscular mechanism through increasing central excitation and the excitability of anterior horn cells, which control muscle contraction. This helps stimulate dormant motor units and produce more efficient movement.

3. Introduction to
neuromuscular
facilitation

4. • Definition and uses of neuromuscular
facilitation
• Demand of activity
• Response of neuromuscular mechanism
• Integrity of motor unit
• Excitability of anterior horn cells

5. Neuromuscular related to brain
and muscles
Facilitation to make easy
or easier
NF is a set of stretching techniques
commonly used in clinical environments
to enhance both active and passive range
of motion with the ultimate goal being to
optimize motor performance and
rehabilitation

6. Developed by Dr. Herman Kabat and Maggie
Knot in late 1940s and early 1950s as a means of
rehabilitation for neurological disorders such as
multiple sclerosis , cerebral palsy and
poliomyelitis

8. • The demands of voluntary effort are normally
capable of producing efficient and purposeful
movement
• These demands are weakened by the factors
which reduces
a) Patient’s ability to exert voluntary action
b) The conductivity of nervous pathways used by
impulses initiated by voluntary effort

9. • Failure to elicit a response
• Incapable of producing a satisfactory response

10. • Makes response easier
• Make weakened demands effective
• Produce efficient and purposeful movement
• Elicit a satisfactory response
• Improve the conductivity of nervous pathways

11.  In neuromuscular system
• Effector organ Muscles
• Response Initiation and control of
muscular contraction

12. • Integrity of motor unit
• Excitability of anterior horn cells
• Factors which influence the A.H.C
• The conductivity of the pathways of impulses
influencing the A.H.Cs
• Nature of the demand

13. • MOTOR UNITS are the functional unit of
neuromuscular system
• It is made up of
 motor neuron and
 Skeletal muscle fibers innervated by that
motor neuron’s axon terminals

14. Activity
•Activity of motor
units is controlled
by the activation of
anterior horn cells or
motor cells of brain
stem
•When motor units
are stimulated , they
discharge impulses
to the muscle fibers ,
which respond by
contracting

15. Integrity
•As muscular
contraction
results from
activation of
motor unit its
integrity is an
essential factor in
implementing a
response

16.  Death causes permanent inactivity of the unit
 Injury to fibers result in temporary inactivity ,
but regeneration is possible in favorable
condition

17. Excitability of
A.H.C
•Activation of motor
units depends on
stimulation of
A.H.Cs
• Impulses reach
them from many
sources but the
effect they produced
depends on the
excitability of cells

18. • The point at which stimulus is of sufficient
intensity is called threshold
•
• A strong stimulus is required to stimulate cells
with a high threshold of excitability
• Low threshold respond to a relatively weak
stimulus

19. Threshold of a cell is reduced by
 Repeated stimulation
 Sub-threshold stimuli
Threshold is increased by
 Lack of stimulation
 Trauma caused by some disease process

20. Such type of cells which are
incapable of responding to
a normal stimulus due to
greater increase in the
threshold

21. • Repeated bombardment of a strong stimuli
• On the dormant cells
• Reduce their threshold sufficiently
• Make them capable of responding to
stimulation
• And reactivation of motor units is achieved

22. • Stimuli reaching the A.H.Cs influence large
groups or pools of cells
• Some of which respond by
 Firing
 Others by reduction in their threshold
excitability

23.  Stronger stimulus
 Greater the effect produced
 Wider sphere of influence

24. • An increase in the excitability of cells in an area
of C.N.S is referred to an increase in central
excitation and is a means of
 Facilitating the response of neuromuscular
mechanism
 Stimulating A.H.C which have remained
dormant