Fig. 9. Elastic properties of the depressor mandibulae muscles. Red lines: 200 ms muscle stimulation prior to load clamp (N=3). Blue lines: 50 ms muscle stimulation prior to load clamp (N=2). Purple line: 100 ms muscle stimulation prior to load clamp (N=1). (A) Change in force (F) vs displacement (x_m) of the depressor mandibulae during load-clamp experiments. (B) Spring constant (k_m) as a function of the change in force (F) during load-clamp experiments. (C) Linear regressions between coefficients c₁ (N) and c₂ (kg s^–2) and muscle force (N). The coefficients describe the shape of the exponential function relating x_m to F (Eqn 9). Dotted lines show 95% confidence intervals for the regression slopes.