This research aims to enhance the control of intricate musculoskeletal spine models, a critical tool for comprehending both healthy and pathological spinal conditions. State-of-the-art musculoskeletal spine models incorporate segments for all vertebra, each possessing 3 degrees-of-freedom (DOF). Manually defining the posture with this amount of DOFs presents a significant challenge. The prevalent method of equally distributing the spine's overall rotation among the vertebrae often proves to be an inadequate assumption, particularly when dealing with the entire spine. We have engineered a comprehensive non-linear spine rhythm and the requisite tools for its implementation in widely utilized musculoskeletal modelling software (1). The rhythm controls lateral bending, axial rotation, and flexion/extension. The mathematical and implementation details of the rhythm are beyond this abstract, but it's noteworthy that the implementation accommodates non-linear rhythms. This means, for example, that one set of rhythm coefficients is used for flexion and another for extension. The rhythm coefficients, which distinguish the movement along the spine, were derived from a review of spine literature. The values for spine and vertebra range-of-motion (ROM) vary significantly in published studies, and no complete dataset was found in any single study. Consequently, the rhythm presented here is a composite, designed to provide the most consistent and average set of rhythm coefficients.Introduction
Method
