The role of inhibition in the control of locomotion

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The spinal cord contains neural circuits that can generate the basic locomotor pattern in a variety of species from primitive protovertebrates to man. While the functional architecture is well known for certain vertebrates such as lamprey and xenopus, much less is known about mammalian CPGs. What is starting to become clear is that the mutually excitatory interneurons within each hemisegment may form the kernel or unit oscillator which is interconnected with other oscillators located ipsilaterally in different segments or in the other hemisegment. Thus inhibitory drive is crucial to allow the genesis of a full repertoire of locomotor behaviors. However, we still don't have a full grasp on the role of inhibition in crafting the rhythm. Partly this is because we lack the ability to fully manipulate inhibitory drive at a segmental level.