Our research utilizes musculoskeletal models and dynamic simulations to quantify the complex interactions between the skeletal, muscular, and nervous systems that produce movement and determine the effect of age and pathology on muscles contributions to the biomechanical subtasks of walking (e.g., support, propulsion, and balance). These analyses have the potential to provide valuable insights into the mechanisms underlying impaired movements and identify rehabilitation targets to improve mobility.

Muscle function during locomotion is influenced by the nervous system’s control strategy. Our research aims to determine the effects of age, pathology, and mode of locomotion on neuromuscular control strategy and identify the role of cortical control on motor output and locomotor performance. This work will provide a basis for the design of models of neuromuscular control that can be incorporated into current musculoskeletal models to improve their ability to predict task performance and response to rehabilitation treatments.

The clinical utility of musculoskeletal models and dynamic simulations could be enhanced by the ability to more efficiently predict kinematic adaptations that leverage a muscle’s ability to contribute to a movement and identify kinematic adaptations to improve a patient’s task performance. To overcome the extensive time, resource, and computational costs of current simulation methods that inhibit their use in a clinical setting, Dr. Roelker developed a modified induced potential analysis (IPA) method to estimate individual muscle potentials using input that can be gathered in a clinical setting, namely body anthropometrics and sagittal plane joint angles. Our future work aims to leverage the IPA model to identify mechanisms that contribute to the relationship between muscle function and kinematics in impaired locomotion.