Phenomenological models of the dynamics of muscle during isotonic shortening

Abstract

We investigated the effectiveness of simple, Hill-type, phenomenological models of the force-length-velocity relationship for simulating measured length trajectories during muscle shortening, and, if so, what forms of the model are most useful. Using isotonic shortening data from mouse soleus and toad depressor mandibulae muscles, we showed that Hill-type models can indeed simulate the shortening trajectories with sufficiently good accuracy. However, we found that the standard form of the Hill-type muscle model, called the force-scaling model, is not a satisfactory choice. Instead, the results support the use of less frequently used models, the f-max scaling model and force-scaling with parallel spring, to simulate the shortening dynamics of muscle.