How can I make a Spinal Cord using matlab 2013?

I wanted to simulate a herniated disc on matlab and I couldnt find a way to model the spinal cord itself. Is there a way to achieve that?

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

Yes, surely so. Anything can be done. For that to happen, you will need to learn MATLAB, and then learn enough about how to model a system like that in MATLAB. But is your question sufficient even for someone to help you? Not really.

What aspects of the spinal cord would you include in a model? Its behavior in transmission of nerve impulses? Physical characteristics? Strength? Stiffness? How much depth would you put into that model?

A good, useful mathematical model of a system comprises only just as much as you can afford to put into that model, without including unnecessary aspects of that system that do not contribute materially to the problem you are trying to study. A common flaw of models is they try to be too comprehensive, and then they completely fail, because they are too complex to deal with.

So you need to define clearly EXACTLY what you need to model. What aspects of this system are important? Then you need to do some research on how you would model such a system. Only then would you even consider employing something like MATLAB, or any modeling tool.

[Hanna]

Thank you John, that was very insightful. I wasn't clear enough, It's true. I would only like to model the Lumbar part of the spinal cord, maybe 3 or 4 sections of the vertebrae and the discs in between. What I'm looking for is a visual of the part of the Lumbar vertebrae for me to add reference point and bend it to an angle. That way, I can assign a certain angle to an amount of disc slip that might follow later.

The nervous system, transmission of impulses and other characteristics of the spinal cord are not relevant for my study. Simply showing the bone bending to different angles is enough.