The correlation between wing kinematics and steering muscle activity in the blowfly Calliphora vicina

Abstract

SUMMARY Determining how the motor patterns of the nervous system are converted into the mechanical and behavioral output of the body is a central goal in the study of locomotion. In the case of dipteran flight, a population of small steering muscles controls many of the subtle changes in wing kinematics that allow flies to maneuver rapidly. We filmed the wing motion of tethered Calliphora vicina at high speed and simultaneously recorded multi-channel electromyographic signals from some of the prominent steering muscles in order to correlate kinematics with muscle activity. Using this analysis, we found that the timing of each spike in the basalare muscles was strongly correlated with changes in the deviation of the stroke plane during the downstroke. The relationship was non-linear such that the magnitude of the kinematic response to each muscle spike decreased with increasing levels of stroke deviation. This result suggests that downstroke deviation is controlled in part via the mechanical summation of basalare activity. We also found that interactions among the basalares and muscles III2–III4 determine the maximum forward amplitude of the wingstroke. In addition, activity in muscle I1 appears to participate in a wingbeat gearing mechanism, as previously proposed. Using these results, we have been able to correlate changes in wing kinematics with alteration in the spike rate, firing phase and combinatorial activity of identified steering muscles.

Neuromuscular embodiment of feedback control elements in Drosophila flight

“…S7). Overall, our findings are consistent with previous electrophysiological studies in flies, which showed that increased activity in either b1 or b2 drove marked increases in wingstroke parameters like the downstroke deviation and forward stroke angles 17–20 (Fig. S2).…”

“…Two of these 12 steering muscles that are thought to play a prominent role in flight control are the first and second basalar muscles, b1 and b2 (Fig. 1A) 15, 17–20 . These muscles regulate wing motion via their agonistic actions on the basalar sclerite, a skeletal element at the base of the wing 14 .…”

Elementary Motion Detection

“…The behavioral data obtained with the high-speed camera confirmed that extracellular recording from LPTCs does not affect the wingbeat frequency and the optomotor response. The wingbeat frequency was only a few Hz different from values previously reported in blowflies (Balint and Dickinson, 2001). The optomotor response was robust.…”

A Cyborg Insect Reveals a Function of a Muscle in Free Flight

“…Despite of several attempts to implement feedback control for freely flying beetles, it is still a challenge to realize autonomous flight of insect-machine hybrid robot [28,41]. It would be useful to have a detail physiology investigation on the role of individual flight muscles in control of wing kinematics [49][50][51]. Such data would provide more insight of how the individual flight muscles work and their effect in flight and thus suggest appropriate stimulation protocol to control the flight muscles.…”