Model of head–neck joint fast movements in the frontal plane

Abstract.

The objective of this work is to develop a model representing the physiological systems driving fast head movements in frontal plane. All the contributions occurring mechanically in the head movement are considered: damping, stiffness, physiological limit of range of motion, gravitational field, and muscular torques due to voluntary activation as well as to stretch reflex depending on fusal afferences. Model parameters are partly derived from the literature, when possible, whereas undetermined block parameters are determined by optimising the model output, fitting to real kinematics data acquired by a motion capture system in specific experimental set-ups. The optimisation for parameter identification is performed by genetic algorithms. Results show that the model represents very well fast head movements in the whole range of inclination in the frontal plane. Such a model could be proposed as a tool for transforming kinematics data on head movements in ‘neural equivalent data’, especially for assessing head control disease and properly planning the rehabilitation process. In addition, the use of genetic algorithms seems to fit well the problem of parameter identification, allowing for the use of a very simple experimental set-up and granting model robustness.