“…The viscoelastic nature of the osteoligamentous spine has been widely reported; however, there are few experimental data quantifying the degree and function by which loading rate affects spinal mechanics (Carter and Hayes, 1976;Nusholtz et al, 1981;McElhaney et al, 1983;Alem et al, 1984;Yoganandan et al, 1989;Neumann et al, 1994;Yingling et al, 1997;Pintar et al, 1998;Race et al, 2000). Understanding the ratedependent mechanics of these tissues is important for accurate modeling of the spine under dynamic loading conditions (Wang et al, 2000;Lee et al, 2004).…”