<p>The main objective of the study was to investigate skeletal muscle force production during isometric contractions, active muscle stretches and shortenings. The motivation behind this work is to improve the dominant model of muscle contraction force generation based on the theories of Hill. The effect of force modification was observed after concentric and eccentric contractions and also stretch-shortening cycles. It has been shown that this force modification is not related to lengthening/shortening velocity, and the steady-state force after non-isometric contractions can be well described by initial isometric force and mechanical work performed by and on the muscle during length variations. The time constants calculated for isometric force redevelopment appeared to be in certain relations with those for initial isometric force development, an observation which extended our basis for ongoing muscle modeling. The main method of the project consists in two extensive series of experiments on mouse skeletal muscles. Analysis of the first series of experiments, concentric contractions, with an emphasis on the force depression has been presented in Paper 1. Paper 2 is based on contractions with various stretches and shortenings as well as their combination, force modification and its predictor are the quantities of interest. The third part of the project is also based on the second series of experiments. Timing aspects of the force production were calculated there.</p>

The main objective of the study was to investigate and simulate skeletal muscleforce production during and after isometric contractions, active muscle lengtheningand active muscle shortening. The motivation behind this work was to improve thedominant model of muscle force generation based on the theories of Hill from 1938. Effects of residual force enhancement and force depression were observed after concentric and eccentric contractions, and also during stretch-shortening cycles. It wasshown that this force modification is not related to lengthening/shortening velocity, butinstead the steady-state force after non-isometric contractions can be well describedby an initial isometric force to which a modification is added. The modification isevaluated from the mechanical work performed by and on the muscle during lengthvariations. The time constants calculated for isometric force redevelopment appearedto be in certain relations with those for initial isometric force development, an observation which extended our basis for muscle modelling. A macroscopic muscular model consisting of a contractile element, and paralleland series elastic elements was supplemented with a history component and adoptedfor mouse soleus muscle experiments. The parameters from the experiment analysis, particularly the force modification after non-isometric contractions and the timeconstants, were reproduced by the simulations. In a step towards a general implementation, the history modification was introduced in the muscluloskeletal model ofOpenSim software, which was then used for simulations of full body movements. / QC 20120525

The main objective of the study was to investigate skeletal muscle force production during isometric contractions, active muscle stretches and shortenings. The motivation behind this work is to improve the dominant model of muscle contraction force generation based on the theories of Hill. The effect of force modification was observed after concentric and eccentric contractions and also stretch-shortening cycles. It has been shown that this force modification is not related to lengthening/shortening velocity, and the steady-state force after non-isometric contractions can be well described by initial isometric force and mechanical work performed by and on the muscle during length variations. The time constants calculated for isometric force redevelopment appeared to be in certain relations with those for initial isometric force development, an observation which extended our basis for ongoing muscle modeling. The main method of the project consists in two extensive series of experiments on mouse skeletal muscles. Analysis of the first series of experiments, concentric contractions, with an emphasis on the force depression has been presented in Paper 1. Paper 2 is based on contractions with various stretches and shortenings as well as their combination, force modification and its predictor are the quantities of interest. The third part of the project is also based on the second series of experiments. Timing aspects of the force production were calculated there. / QC 20120209