Skeletal Muscle Contraction: Force and Movement

Abstract

Skeletal muscles produce contractile force when activated. The electrical activity of motor neurons is transmitted across the neuromuscular junction and produces muscle action potentials which are qualitatively similar to the nerve action potential. The membrane depolarization of muscle fibers leads to chemical reactions which produce this contractile force. One of the most widely used quantitative models of muscle contraction is due to A.F. Huxley. Although this is a nonlinear model, it is possible to linearize it into a form convenient for use in complex macroscopic models of movement. This linearized model can use many of the tools of systems analysis developed in preceding chapters. Numerical simulation of the model can allow virtual experiments of twitch, force summation, isometric and isotonic conditions, etc.

The zoologist is delighted by the differences between animals, whereas the physiologist would like all animals to work in fundamentally the same way.

– Alan Hodgkin