The phenomenological model of muscle contraction with a controller to simulate the excitation-contraction (E-C) coupling.

Abstract

We previously proposed a systematic motor model for muscle with two parallel Maxwell elements and a force generator P. The motor model showed the non-linear behavior of a muscle, such as the force-velocity relation and the force depression and enhancement, by using weight functions. Our newly proposed muscle model is based on the molecular mechanism of myosin cross-bridges. We assume that each parallel Maxwell element represents the mechanical properties of weak and strong binding of the myosin head to actin. Furthermore, we introduce a controller to simulate the excitation-contraction coupling of the muscle. The new muscle model satisfies all the properties obtained in our previous model and reduces the wasted energy of the viscous component to less than 5% of the total energy. The controller enables us to simulate contractions of slow and fast twitch muscles, which are driven by an artificial action potential or a processing electromyography signal despite their same mechanical components. The maximum velocities are calculated to be 3.4L(0)m/s for the fast twitch muscle model and 2.5L(0)m/s for the slow twitch muscle model, where L(0) is the initial length of the muscle model.