Three-dimensional moment and stiffness summation for muscles sharing a common tendon

摘要

This study examined the hypothesis that muscles operating in the normal physiological state act as independent actuators. This hypothesis was tested by measuring the nonlinearities associated with three-dimensional (3D) moment and stiffness summation for three muscle groups crossing the cat ankle joint. Our results indicate that the nonlinearities associated with joint moment and stiffness summation are small (<5%), even between muscles having extensive myofascial interconnections.