Richards Christopher T, Eberhard Enrico A
The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, Hatfield AL9 7TA, UK
The Royal Veterinary College, Hawkshead Lane, Hatfield AL9 7TA, UK.
J Exp Biol. 2020 May 18;223(Pt 10):jeb210054. doi: 10.1242/jeb.210054.
Muscle force-length dynamics are governed by intrinsic contractile properties, motor stimulation and mechanical load. Although intrinsic properties are well characterised, physiologists lack instrumentation to account for combined effects of limb inertia, musculoskeletal architecture and contractile dynamics. We introduce virtual reality (-VR) which enables muscle tissue to drive a musculoskeletal jumping simulation. In hardware, muscle force from a frog plantaris was transmitted to a software model where joint torques, inertia and ground reaction forces were computed to advance the simulation at 1 kHz. To close the loop, simulated muscle strain was returned to update length. We manipulated (1) stimulation timing and (2) the virtual muscle's anatomical origin. This influenced interactions among muscular, inertial, gravitational and contact forces dictating limb kinematics and jump performance. We propose that -VR can be used to illustrate how neuromuscular control and musculoskeletal anatomy influence muscle dynamics and biomechanical performance.
肌肉力-长度动态受内在收缩特性、运动刺激和机械负荷的支配。尽管内在特性已得到充分表征，但生理学家缺乏能够解释肢体惯性、肌肉骨骼结构和收缩动力学综合影响的仪器。我们引入了虚拟现实（-VR）技术，它能使肌肉组织驱动肌肉骨骼跳跃模拟。在硬件方面，青蛙跖肌产生的肌肉力被传输到一个软件模型中，在该模型中计算关节扭矩、惯性和地面反作用力，以1千赫兹的频率推进模拟。为了实现闭环，模拟的肌肉应变被反馈回来以更新长度。我们操纵了（1）刺激时间和（2）虚拟肌肉的解剖学起点。这影响了肌肉、惯性、重力和接触力之间的相互作用，从而决定了肢体运动学和跳跃性能。我们提出，-VR可用于阐明神经肌肉控制和肌肉骨骼解剖结构如何影响肌肉动力学和生物力学性能。
