Modeling of Stretch Reflex Activation Considering Muscle Type

Abstract

Although the stretch reflex plays an important role in spasticity, so far the stretch reflex has not been sufficiently investigated. Previous stretch reflex activation models have some limitations, whereby they are not able to predict outcomes of some stretch reflex cases and do not consider uneven distribution of muscle length and stretch velocity on reflex activation. The purpose of this study was: 1) to develop a modified stretch reflex activation model employing a new muscle length threshold and weighting factors for slow-twitch fiber and fast-twitch fiber, and 2) to validate the model using pendulum experiments of the lower and upper limbs. The new muscle length threshold was defined using the optimal muscle fiber length. Based on the optimal fiber length, the new threshold allows for prediction of the stretch reflex activation at muscle lengths shorter than have been possible with previous models. The muscle type weighting factors realized unequal contributions between the muscle length and stretch velocity. We proved the validity of the proposed reflex activation model by using pendulum tests to induce patellar tendon and biceps brachii reflexes. Unknown parameters employed in the proposed model were obtained by minimizing differences in motion obtained with the proposed model and experiments. The proposed model can predict stretch reflex activation at shorter muscle lengths. In addition, the proposed model reflected nonhomogeneous characteristics related to the unequal contributions between muscle length and stretch velocity. As a result, patellar tendon and biceps brachii reflex phenomena were shown to be predicted more accurately in this study.