scholarly journals Generation of Direct-, Retrograde-, and Source-Wave Gaits in Multi-Legged Locomotion in a Decentralized Manner via Embodied Sensorimotor Interaction

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuichi Ambe ◽  
Shinya Aoi ◽  
Kazuo Tsuchiya ◽  
Fumitoshi Matsuno
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Analytical Description ◽  
Legged Locomotion ◽  
Interlimb Coordination ◽  
Complex Nature ◽  
Functional Roles ◽  
Sensorimotor Interaction ◽  
Source Wave ◽  
Leg Movements

Multi-legged animals show several types of ipsilateral interlimb coordination. Millipedes use a direct-wave gait, in which the swing leg movements propagate from posterior to anterior. In contrast, centipedes use a retrograde-wave gait, in which the swing leg movements propagate from anterior to posterior. Interestingly, when millipedes walk in a specific way, both direct and retrograde waves of the swing leg movements appear with the waves' source, which we call the source-wave gait. However, the gait generation mechanism is still unclear because of the complex nature of the interaction between neural control and dynamic body systems. The present study used a simple model to understand the mechanism better, primarily how local sensory feedback affects multi-legged locomotion. The model comprises a multi-legged body and its locomotion control system using biologically inspired oscillators with local sensory feedback, phase resetting. Each oscillator controls each leg independently. Our simulation produced the above three types of animal gaits. These gaits are not predesigned but emerge through the interaction between the neural control and dynamic body systems through sensory feedback (embodied sensorimotor interaction) in a decentralized manner. The analytical description of these gaits' solution and stability clarifies the embodied sensorimotor interaction's functional roles in the interlimb coordination.

scholarly journals Interlimb Coordination in Human Crawling Reveals Similarities in Development and Neural Control With Quadrupeds

2009 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 603-613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan K. Patrick ◽  
J. Adam Noah ◽  
Jaynie F. Yang
Keyword(s):  
Neural Control ◽  
Force Plate ◽  
Interlimb Coordination ◽  
Limb Length ◽  
Bipedal Walking ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Hind Limbs ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Hands And Feet ◽  
Coordination Patterns

The study of quadrupeds has furnished most of our understanding of mammalian locomotion. To allow a more direct comparison of coordination between the four limbs in humans and quadrupeds, we studied crawling in the human, a behavior that is part of normal human development and mechanically more similar to quadrupedal locomotion than is bipedal walking. Interlimb coordination during hands-and-knees crawling is compared between humans and quadrupeds and between human infants and adults. Mechanical factors were manipulated during crawling to understand the relative contributions of mechanics and neural control. Twenty-six infants and seven adults were studied. Video, force plate, and electrogoniometer data were collected. Belt speed of the treadmill, width of base, and limb length were manipulated in adults. Influences of unweighting and limb length were explored in infants. Infants tended to move diagonal limbs together (trot-like). Adults additionally moved ipsilateral limbs together (pace-like). At lower speeds, movements of the four limbs were more equally spaced in time, with no clear pairing of limbs. At higher speeds, running symmetrical gaits were never observed, although one adult galloped. Widening stance prevented adults from using the pace-like gait, whereas lengthening the hind limbs (hands-and-feet crawling) largely prevented the trot-like gait. Limb length and unweighting had no effect on coordination in infants. We conclude that human crawling shares features both with other primates and with nonprimate quadrupeds, suggesting similar underlying mechanisms. The greater restriction in coordination patterns used by infants suggests their nervous system has less flexibility.

Neural control of the circulation

2011 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail D. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Dominant Role ◽  
Sympathetic Nerves ◽  
Cardiovascular Regulation ◽  
General Knowledge ◽  
Sympathetic Outflow ◽  
Cardiac Rate ◽  
Key Concepts ◽  
Arteries And Veins

The purpose of this brief review is to highlight key concepts about the neural control of the circulation that graduate and medical students should be expected to incorporate into their general knowledge of human physiology. The focus is largely on the sympathetic nerves, which have a dominant role in cardiovascular control due to their effects to increase cardiac rate and contractility, cause constriction of arteries and veins, cause release of adrenal catecholamines, and activate the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system. These effects, as well as the control of sympathetic outflow by the vasomotor center in the medulla and the importance of sensory feedback in the form of peripheral reflexes, especially the baroreflexes, are discussed in the context of cardiovascular regulation.

scholarly journals Body side-specific control of motor activity during turning in a walking animal

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Gruhn ◽  
Philipp Rosenbaum ◽  
Till Bockemühl ◽  
Ansgar Büschges
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Neural Control ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Motor Task ◽  
Stick Insect ◽  
Body Side ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Specific Control ◽  
Environmental Demands

Animals and humans need to move deftly and flexibly to adapt to environmental demands. Despite a large body of work on the neural control of walking in invertebrates and vertebrates alike, the mechanisms underlying the motor flexibility that is needed to adjust the motor behavior remain largely unknown. Here, we investigated optomotor-induced turning and the neuronal mechanisms underlying the differences between the leg movements of the two body sides in the stick insect Carausius morosus. We present data to show that the generation of turning kinematics in an insect are the combined result of descending unilateral commands that change the leg motor output via task-specific modifications in the processing of local sensory feedback as well as modification of the activity of local central pattern generating networks in a body-side-specific way. To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the specificity of such modifications in a defined motor task.

Neural Control of Cooperation Dynamically Incorporates Sensory Feedback

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Coleman ◽  
Nancy Day ◽  
Pamela Rivera-Parra ◽  
Eric Fortune
Keyword(s):  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Neural Control

Legs evolved only at the end!

2006 ◽  
Vol 365 (1850) ◽  
pp. 185-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin S Fischer ◽  
Hartmut Witte
Keyword(s):  
Neural Control ◽  
Legged Locomotion ◽  
The Body

Talking about legged locomotion often evokes the idea that animals using such devices are perfectly adapted to this kind of motion and should be copied by robotics. The aim of this contribution is to show that the evolution of legs comes late in phylogeny, be it in arthropods or vertebrates. Neural control of legs in vertebrates has to deal with conservative arrangements ‘invented’ for axial locomotion of metameric organisms. The structure of this paper is to show the importance of axial driven propulsion in vertebrates without legs, with legs and only at the end how limbs move the body in eutherian mammals.

scholarly journals An optimality principle for locomotor central pattern generators

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hansol X. Ryu ◽  
Arthur D. Kuo
Keyword(s):  
Internal Model ◽  
Sensory Feedback ◽  
Motor Pattern ◽  
Central Pattern Generators ◽  
Optimal Estimation ◽  
Legged Locomotion ◽  
Energetic Cost ◽  
Fictive Locomotion ◽  
Cost Of Transport ◽  
Pattern Generators

AbstractTwo types of neural circuits contribute to legged locomotion: central pattern generators (CPGs) that produce rhythmic motor commands (even in the absence of feedback, termed “fictive locomotion”), and reflex circuits driven by sensory feedback. Each circuit alone serves a clear purpose, and the two together are understood to cooperate during normal locomotion. The difficulty is in explaining their relative balance objectively within a control model, as there are infinite combinations that could produce the same nominal motor pattern. Here we propose that optimization in the presence of uncertainty can explain how the circuits should best be combined for locomotion. The key is to re-interpret the CPG in the context of state estimator-based control: an internal model of the limbs that predicts their state, using sensory feedback to optimally balance competing effects of environmental and sensory uncertainties. We demonstrate use of optimally predicted state to drive a simple model of bipedal, dynamic walking, which thus yields minimal energetic cost of transport and best stability. The internal model may be implemented with neural circuitry compatible with classic CPG models, except with neural parameters determined by optimal estimation principles. Fictive locomotion also emerges, but as a side effect of estimator dynamics rather than an explicit internal rhythm. Uncertainty could be key to shaping CPG behavior and governing optimal use of feedback.

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