title: Understanding complex muscles in the rat hindlimb: Activations and actions.
abstract: We present research examining the function of complex muscles in the rat hindlimb. Two related sets of experiments are described. In the first, we examine the degree of specificity in spinal pattern generators, assessing whether the pattern generators at birth are capable of differentially activating intramuscular subdivisions in the complex hindlimb muscle biceps femoris. In the second, we describe a novel approach for creating a musculoskeletal model to capture the mechanical actions of individual muscles and evaluate its ability to capture the action of both simple and complex muscles in the rat hindlimb.
authors.affiliation: Northwestern University, Departments of Biomedical Engineering, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Physiology, Chicago, IL 60611, USA. m-tresch@northwestern.edu
authors.forename: Matthew C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Tresch
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Sang Hoon
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yeo
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mullens
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sandercock
authors.forename: Dinesh K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Pai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001683:Biological Clocks / Q000502:physiology; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006614:Hindlimb / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009119:Muscle Contraction / Q000502:physiology*; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology*