Relationship between trunk posture and the limb joint mechanics dining the primate locomotion

对日本猕猴四足水平行走时肢体运动模式与躯干姿势的关系进行了分析。为了评价综合运动模式，分析了由关节位移决定的整个肢体长度。计算了整个躯干在三维空间中的角度，并与肢体长度进行了比较。通过一系列的实验，揭示了这两个参数之间的关系。在实验过程中发现了三个额外的研究问题，第一个问题涉及到肢体关节偏移的实际限制。本文提出了一种在尸体上测量关节活动范围的方法。并将该方法应用于七种灵长类动物膝关节的旋转运动，探讨灵长类动物膝关节结构的运动适应性。第二个问题涉及到肌肉对肢体关节的本体感受属性。如果躯干姿势是由肢体条件控制的，那么收集关节姿势的信息是重要的。为了实现这一需求，肌梭将发挥关键作用。因此，我们测试了原猴肩关节肌肉的组织学特征。结果表明，肌梭的分布可以很好地反映出种属特异性的运动方式。第三个也是最后一个问题涉及到实验设置的结构。传统实验环境中使用的水平走道。为主体提供持续的支持。然而，树栖灵长类动物习惯于利用不连续的分支支持。因此，我们计划测试的水平阶梯状的支持作为更生态合适的实验设置。实验动物可以在其上进行水平四足行走，并收集了日本猕猴的水平四足行走数据。

The analysis of the relationship between the limb motion pattern and the trunk posture during horizontal quadrupedal walking of the Japanese macaque was performed. In order to evaluate comprehensive motor pattern, the lengths of whole limbs, which were determined by the excursions of the joint, were analyzed. The angles of the whole trunk in the three dimensional space were calculated and investigated against the limb length. A series of the experiment revealed the relationship of both parameters. Three additional research problems were found during the experiment, First problem concerns to the actual limit of the limb joint excursion. We developed the method to evaluate the range of the joint excursion in cadaver. Then we adopted this method to the knee joint rotation in seven primate species, and we could discuss on the locomotor adaptation of the knee joint structure in primates. Second problem concerns to the proprioceptive attributes of the muscles acting to the limb joints. If the trunk posture was controlled by limb conditions, it is important to gather the information of the joint posture. To achieve this demand, the muscles spindle would play a critical roll. Thus we tested the histological characteristics of the prosimian shoulder joint muscles. The results suggested the distribution of the muscle spindle would well reflect the species-specific mode of locomotion. The third and last problem concerns to the structure of the experimental setting. The horizontal walkway, which was used in traditional experimental setting. supplies the continuous support to the subject. However, the arboreal primates used to utilized the discontinuous branch support. Thus we planed to test the horizontal ladder-like support as the more ecologically appropriate experimental setting. The experimental animals could perform the locomotor behavior on it. Then we collected the data of the horizontal quadrupedal walking of the Japanese macaques, Primates.