Simulating electromechanical delay across the scales – relating the behavior of single sarcomers on a sub‐cellular scale and the muscle‐tendon system on the organ scale

Abstract

The time lag between the activation of a muscle and the development of force is commonly denoted as electromechanical delay (EMD). Within this work, a multi-scale model of an idealized muscle-tendon system is used to analyze EMD on different characteristic anatomical length scales. Thereby, the simluated EMD-stretch curves for a complete muscle-tendon system and a single sarcomere are significantly different. While for an isolated muscle EMD is shown to be strongly determined by excitation-contraction coupling (ECC), the EMD-stretch curve for a complete muscle-tendon system is influenced by additional factors, such as, e.g., the tendon. Further, it is shown that the action potential conduction velocity (APCV) has minor influence on EMD.