Mus siliconus: A Neuro-Musculoskeletal Digital Twin of the Mouse Integrating Neural Dynamics, Biomechanics, and Tactile Sensing
Digital twin technologies could transform neuroscience and biomedicine by creating predictive computational representations of living organisms. However, most animal digital twins model neural circuits, anatomy, or biomechanics separately rather than integrating the processes that generate behavior. We argue that animal digital twins should instead be conceived as embodied dynamical systems that unify neural activity, body mechanics, sensory feedback, and environmental interactions. We propose a neuro-musculoskeletal digital twin of the mouse that combines multimodal anatomical reconstruction from X-ray CT, high-resolution white-light sections, and Scx-GFP imaging with biomechanical simulation, Bonhoeffer--van der Pol neural dynamics, and tactile feedback. This framework forms a closed sensorimotor loop in which behavior emerges through continuous interactions among the nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and environment. The Bonhoeffer--van der Pol model provides a computationally tractable dynamical foundation for large-scale simulation of these interactions. Neuro-musculoskeletal digital twins could provide a convergence point for computational neuroscience, biomechanics, artificial intelligence, and robotics. When coupled with adaptive learning and autonomous experimentation, they may develop from passive simulations into active scientific instruments that generate hypotheses, predict interventions, and guide experiments. Such embodied digital twins could advance the study of biological intelligence and support new adaptive biomedical and robotic systems.