by Regina Nuzzo, PhD
Biomedical Computation Review
Winter 2006/07
Feature Story
Walk, run, bend, reach.
The elements of human movement have fascinated research scientists for centuries. To understand how muscles contract and joints flex, researchers have dissected cadavers and experimented with animals. They can describe how bones, muscles, and tendons connect in a complicated geometry; how muscles exert forces on joints; and even how sparks in the brain can trigger a muscle’s contraction.
Meanwhile, and mostly independently, clinicians have been treating people for sports injuries, stroke, and movement diseases such as cerebral palsy and osteoarthritis. Using trial and error, they’ve assessed which rehabilitative strategies and surgical interventions work best.
Until recently, these two perspectives have not been well integrated. Clinical observations might miss the interplay of forces that lead to an injured knee, while static equations regarding the flexion of a dead man’s knee may by themselves be of little help in treating a torn ligament. Researchers were missing the cause-and-effect models that linked the physical forces with the clinical outcomes.
