Click on image to view larger version.
Figure 1. Structure of the rabbit cranial base cartilage and force waveforms delivered to the rabbit skull. (A) Schematic diagram of the rabbit cranial base cartilage (CBC) or the spheno-occipital synchondrosis. The horizontal arrow indicates 2-Newton tensile forces applied to the maxillary incisors. The CBC, schematically represented as a rectangle, is located between the sphenoid and occipital bones. (B,C) Traces of exogenous forces with the same peak magnitude of 2 Newtons but with two different waveforms: static force (B) and cyclic force (C). The static force failed to induce any substantial oscillation in force magnitude over the representative 10-second time course (B). In contrast, the cyclic force of the same peak magnitude oscillated at 1 cycle per sec, totaling 10 cycles in the representative 10-second time course (C).
