THISW SEMINAR HAS BEEN POSTPONED
Details regarding the rescheduled date and time for this event will be published once they have been confirmed.
Abstract
The complexity of locomotion can be reduced by using simple models, or templates. The inverted pendulum and spring-mass model have been widely used as templates of walking and running. This approach has advanced our understanding of control, stability, energetics and rehabilitation of terrestrial locomotion. However, it also removes all biological details, the understanding of which is often our goal. Models more grounded in biological reality, anchors, seek to understand how the musculoskeletal system generates movement, and in doing so illustrate the evolutionary and ecological implications of morphological specialization. Our ability to move between these templates and anchors is limited by, among other factors, our understanding of skeletal muscle.
Skeletal muscle is the biological motor. It converts chemical energy into a mechanical output. Terrestrial locomotion requires that muscle generate force to support bodyweight and do work to accommodate mechanical energy fluctuations of the body. The complexity and redundancy of musculoskeletal systems means that multiple solutions exist. Muscle synergies allow many combinations of muscle activation to achieve a desired total force, and elastic tendons in series with muscles provide a diversity of ways in which mechanical energy fluctuations can be accommodated. Recent evidence suggests that there are likely to be unexpected differences in muscle metabolic energy consumption across these strategies. An understanding of this variation in cost, and the solutions used during locomotion, will provide insight into the drivers of morphology, targets of neural control, and the links between templates and anchors.
Biography
Natalie’s research uses multi-scale physiological approaches to understand the role of muscle performance in locomotor morphology, behavior, ecology and pathology. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Bristol and her PhD from the University of Leeds. Her PhD work focused on muscle mechanics and energetics. It demonstrated how the contraction strategies used during high power activities such as take-off flight and calling, and morphological adaptations for endurance activities such as distance running, influence metabolic energy consumption. She then moved on to post-doc positions at Harvard University and UC Irvine where she became interested in role of the structural properties of muscle in determining performance under physiologically realistic and pathological conditions. She was an Assistant Professor of Biomechanics at Northern Arizona University, and is currently an Assistant Professor of Systems Physiology at UC Riverside. Her current work includes understanding the effect of ageing and exercise on intramuscular connective tissues properties and muscle performance, and the role of muscle metabolic energy consumption in task distribution across organisms and populations.