The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability
Recent work has demonstrated how the size of an animal can affect neural control strategies, showing that passive viscoelastic limb properties have a significant role in determining limb movements in small animals but are less important in large animals. We extend that work to consider effects of me...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2021-02-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/4/2018 |
| _version_ | 1797396147778617344 |
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| author | Gil Serrancolí Cristiano Alessandro Matthew C. Tresch |
| author_facet | Gil Serrancolí Cristiano Alessandro Matthew C. Tresch |
| author_sort | Gil Serrancolí |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Recent work has demonstrated how the size of an animal can affect neural control strategies, showing that passive viscoelastic limb properties have a significant role in determining limb movements in small animals but are less important in large animals. We extend that work to consider effects of mechanical scaling on the maintenance of joint integrity; i.e., the prevention of aberrant contact forces within joints that might lead to joint dislocation or cartilage degradation. We first performed a literature review to evaluate how properties of ligaments responsible for joint integrity scale with animal size. Although we found that the cross-sectional area of the anterior cruciate ligament generally scaled with animal size, as expected, the effects of scale on the ligament’s mechanical properties were less clear, suggesting potential adaptations in passive contributions to the maintenance of joint integrity across species. We then analyzed how the neural control of joint stability is altered by body scale. We show how neural control strategies change across mechanical scales, how this scaling is affected by passive muscle properties and the cost function used to specify muscle activations, and the consequences of scaling on internal joint contact forces. This work provides insights into how scale affects the regulation of joint integrity by both passive and active processes and provides directions for studies examining how this regulation might be accomplished by neural systems. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:47:07Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e419e06d6e1a496c90e7f294e437c415 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1661-6596 1422-0067 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T00:47:07Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Molecular Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-e419e06d6e1a496c90e7f294e437c4152023-12-11T17:29:31ZengMDPI AGInternational Journal of Molecular Sciences1661-65961422-00672021-02-01224201810.3390/ijms22042018The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint StabilityGil Serrancolí0Cristiano Alessandro1Matthew C. Tresch2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08019 Barcelona, SpainDepartment of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Università degli Studi di Pavia, 27100 Pavia, ItalyDepartment of Physiology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL 60611, USARecent work has demonstrated how the size of an animal can affect neural control strategies, showing that passive viscoelastic limb properties have a significant role in determining limb movements in small animals but are less important in large animals. We extend that work to consider effects of mechanical scaling on the maintenance of joint integrity; i.e., the prevention of aberrant contact forces within joints that might lead to joint dislocation or cartilage degradation. We first performed a literature review to evaluate how properties of ligaments responsible for joint integrity scale with animal size. Although we found that the cross-sectional area of the anterior cruciate ligament generally scaled with animal size, as expected, the effects of scale on the ligament’s mechanical properties were less clear, suggesting potential adaptations in passive contributions to the maintenance of joint integrity across species. We then analyzed how the neural control of joint stability is altered by body scale. We show how neural control strategies change across mechanical scales, how this scaling is affected by passive muscle properties and the cost function used to specify muscle activations, and the consequences of scaling on internal joint contact forces. This work provides insights into how scale affects the regulation of joint integrity by both passive and active processes and provides directions for studies examining how this regulation might be accomplished by neural systems.https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/4/2018joint stabilityligamentmechanical scale |
| spellingShingle | Gil Serrancolí Cristiano Alessandro Matthew C. Tresch The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability International Journal of Molecular Sciences joint stability ligament mechanical scale |
| title | The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability |
| title_full | The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability |
| title_fullStr | The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability |
| title_short | The Effects of Mechanical Scale on Neural Control and the Regulation of Joint Stability |
| title_sort | effects of mechanical scale on neural control and the regulation of joint stability |
| topic | joint stability ligament mechanical scale |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/4/2018 |
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