ROL OF POSITION AND MOVEMENT IS SIMPLIFIED BY COMBINED MUSCLE SPINDLE AND GOLGI TENDON ORGAN FEEDBACK

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Abstract

Human muscle has two primary sensors: Muscle Spindles (MSs), typically assumed to signal length and changes in length of the muscle fibres, and Golgi tendon organs (GTOs), assumed to sense the force delivered by muscle. Unlike MSs, GTOs do not play a prominent role in current theories of human motor control. Here we show that due to the mechanical interaction of muscle fibres with tendon, a simple feedback loop based only on spindle afferents is not effective. We propose that GTO signals can be used to compensate for tendon stretch, and we show using simulations with detailed musculoskeletal models that together with MS afferents they can be used for simple yet very effective feedback control. The analyses in our study shed light on the role of GTOs and on the potential reasons why strong connections between muscle spindles and GTOs exist in the human nervous system.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the 2017 ISB XXVI Congress
Publication statusPublished - 7 Jan 2013

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