Final answer:
Stimulating the gastrocnemius muscle at 0.8 V and 16 Hz will likely increase the force generation to more than 132g due to temporal summation, resulting in a more sustained and powerful graded muscle response.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student asked what would happen to force generation if you stimulated the gastrocnemius at 0.8 V and 16 Hz, given that a maximal twitch response of 132 g was observed with 0.8 V stimulation. In the context of skeletal muscle physiology, when a muscle fiber is stimulated by an action potential it produces a contraction called a twitch. If subsequent action potentials arrive before the muscle fiber has had time to completely relax, the twitches can summate, leading to an increased force generation—a phenomenon known as temporal summation.
Since the frequency of action potentials affects the tension produced in skeletal muscle, stimulating the gastrocnemius at a higher frequency (16 Hz) while maintaining the voltage (0.8 V) will increase the force generation beyond that of a single twitch response. It will cause a more sustained and powerful graded muscle response, likely resulting in force production that is more than 132g.