  The human body is a complex organism whose gross mechanical properties are
enabled by an interconnected musculoskeletal network controlled by the nervous
system. The nature of musculoskeletal interconnection facilitates stability,
voluntary movement, and robustness to injury. However, a fundamental
understanding of this network and its control by neural systems has remained
elusive. Here we utilize medical databases and mathematical modeling to reveal
the organizational structure, predicted function, and neural control of the
musculoskeletal system. We construct a whole-body musculoskeletal network in
which single muscles connect to multiple bones via both origin and insertion
points. We demonstrate that a muscle's role in this network predicts
susceptibility of surrounding components to secondary injury. Finally, we
illustrate that sets of muscles cluster into network communities that mimic the
organization of motor cortex control modules. This novel formalism for
describing interactions between the muscular and skeletal systems serves as a
foundation to develop and test therapeutic responses to injury, inspiring
future advances in clinical treatments.
