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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jan 31.
Published in final edited form as: Phys Med Rehabil Clin N Am. 2015 Feb;26(1):57–67. doi: 10.1016/j.pmr.2014.09.005

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3

Schematic length-tension curve of skeletal muscle. When sarcomere length data for cerebral palsy (CP; O symbols) and typically developing (TD; X symbols) muscles are plotted on this curve, sarcomeres clearly act in a fundamentally different region of the curve for CP in comparison with TD subjects. For example, if TD sarcomeres are stretched, maximal force production will increase, whereas the opposite will happen for CP sarcomeres. Muscles represented include gracilis, semitendinosus, soleus, and flexor carpi ulnaris. (Data from Mathewson MA, et al. submitted; and Lieber RL, Fridén J. Spasticity causes a fundamental rearrangement of muscle-joint interaction. Muscle Nerve 2002;25(2):265–70; and Smith LR, Lee KS, Ward SR, et al. Hamstring contractures in children with spastic cerebral palsy result from a stiffer extracellular matrix and increased in vivo sarcomere length. J Physiol 2011;589(10):2625–39.)