Properties and Mechanisms of Locomotion

Wetzel, Mary C.; Howell, Leon G.

doi:10.1007/978-1-4684-3884-0_11

Cited by 9 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 86 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…. In recent reviews on this subject by Grillner (1981) and Wetzel & Howell (1981), the authors always took great care to distinguish the level at which the results were obtained; an example in characterizing this attitude is the success of the term "fictive locomotion," used for the first time by Perret, Millanevoye, and Cabelguen (1972). In itself, "fictive" does not have a very satisfactory meaning, but it does permit one to consider all the work done on central pattern generators and to propose a possible relation with the data obtained from the intact animal.…”

Section: Laboratoire De Neurobiologie Compare'e Cnrs Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Resurrecting Lorenz's hydraulic model: Phlogiston explained by quantum mechanics

Rowell

1984

Behav Brain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Neuroethology, an interdisciplinary subdivision of neuroscience, has emerged in recent years. Since 1976 there has been a regular session under this heading at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. In 1980 two introductory texts in English were published on the subject (Ewert 1980;Guthrie 1980), and a third (Camhi 1984) was published recently. There is widespread interest in neural mechanisms underlying behavior, but they encompass such a vast array of often unrelated topics that proponents do not share common goals. This article describes the emergence of ethology as a discipline, pointing out that its practitioners were successful because they confined their research to stereotyped, complex, nonlearned, innate behavioral acts. A limited number of profoundly significant principles emerged. Each of these is redefined. The major concepts of earlier ethology were embodied in a simple hydraulic model used by Konrad Lorenz in 1949 (Lorenz 1950. It is pointed out that this model implies the existence of common neurophysiological mechanisms and neuronal circuitry. This model has now been made obsolete by neurophysiological progress, but with appropriate modifications an updated version may still be useful in focusing attention on possible principles. The initial aim of neuroethology should be to examine the neurophysiological events in a variety of behaviors, exhibited by diverse animals from different phyla, which meet the criteria of innate behavioral acts. The behaviors should be sufficiently complex to interest ethologists, yet they should be addressable with neurophysiological methods down to the cellular level. In the case of vertebrates this may mean working with brain slices as well as whole animals, but for some invertebrates recording should be possible in the nearly intact animal during execution of the behavior. The work will be exacting and very difficult, and it is not likely to get done at all unless neuroethologists recognize that they should both train and discipline themselves and restrict their attention to welldefined goals.Keywords: behavioral biology; behavior patterns; ethology; fixed action patterns (FAPs); instinct; learning; Lorenz; motor programs; neuroethology Historical origins of ethologyA scientific discipline of neuroethology could not have existed either before the term "ethology" had become established or before neuroscience had developed to the point where both neuroanatomical and neurophysiological methods were available that could be used to attack ethological questions. There is a strong tendency to equate neuroethology with the neural bases of behavior in the broadest sense. To do so encompasses such a broad spectrum of phenomena that the extremes are virtually unrelated and can only be linked by the widest stretches of imagination. Such links are too tenuous. If the term "neuroethology" is to serve the useful purpose of identifying a group of active scholar-investigators sharing common goals, to bring them together and stimulate their research, it must be...

show abstract

Section: Laboratoire De Neurobiologie Compare'e Cnrs Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Resurrecting Lorenz's hydraulic model: Phlogiston explained by quantum mechanics

Rowell

1984

Behav Brain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Difficulties and Relevance Of A Neuroethological Approach Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethology has progressed

Hinde

1984

Behav Brain Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Coordination of many oscillators and generation of locomotory patterns

1990

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper considers a synthesis approach to a decentralized autonomous system in which the functional order of the entire system is generated by cooperative interaction among its subsystems, each of which has the autonomy to control a part of the state of the system, and its application to pattern generators of animal locomotion. First, biological locomotory rhythms and their generators, swimming patterns of aquatic animals and gait patterns of quadrupeds, are reviewed briefly. Then, a design principle for autonomous coordination of many oscillators is proposed. Using these results, we synthesize a swimming pattern generator and a gait pattern generator. Finally, it is shown using computer simulations that the proposed systems generate desirable patterns.

show abstract

Properties and Mechanisms of Locomotion

Cited by 9 publications

References 86 publications

Resurrecting Lorenz's hydraulic model: Phlogiston explained by quantum mechanics

Resurrecting Lorenz's hydraulic model: Phlogiston explained by quantum mechanics

Ethology has progressed

Coordination of many oscillators and generation of locomotory patterns

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About