Exploration of how muscle bulging influences force transmission during human muscle contractions

Event Details

Date:

Friday, 21 August 2015

Time:

1:00 pm - 1:30 pm

Room:

219

UQ Location:

Human Movement Studies Building (St Lucia)

Event category(s):

Full Description:: Changes in muscle shape during contraction (e.g. bulging, shortening/lengthening) may be important for enhancing or degrading the mechanical output and efficiency of muscle.
Currently, predictive models of human muscle function consistently underestimate the force-generating capacity of muscle during dynamic tasks such as walking, and this may be because muscle bulging is constrained in such models. We hypothesise that muscle bulging variability during contractions at different lengths may make the connective tissue more or less stiff and hence have an impact on how force is transmitted to the bones. This may serve to increase the amount of elastic energy that can be stored and returned for a given muscle contraction.

In this seminar I will present an ultrasound technique that is capable of reliably measuring muscle shape changes during isometric contractions and initial results from an experiment designed to assess if the elasticity of muscle can be changed at different muscle activations and muscle lengths.

Mr Brent Raiteri is a PhD candidate in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences at The University of Queensland. He is in his final year of study under the supervision of Dr Glen Lichtwark and Prof Andrew Cresswell.
His thesis aims to determine how factors like muscle length and activation of muscles influence how muscles transmit force to the skeleton.