Predictions and experimental tests of a visco-elastic muscle model using elastic and inertial loads.

Abstract

A simple, linear visco-elastic model of muscle is described which contains five parameters: a series and a parallel elasticity, a viscosity, and a magnitude and rate constant for the decay of the active state. The effects of adding springs in series with a muscle are predicted. The responses to random stimulus trains can be used to evaluate the parameters of the model. The effects of applying inertial loads to the muscle can also be predicted. These predictions are in good agreement with experimental observations on plantaris muscle of the cat. For example, damped oscillations of the predicted frequencies can be observed for various inertial loads. The gain of the frequency response falls off sharply (as the fourth power of frequency) at higher frequencies. However, responses to lower frequency signals, including most of the frequencies important for cyclic movements, are only slightly affected by a wide variation in inertial load.