Biomechanics and the lamprey central pattern generator

描述（由申请人提供）：本提案的主要目标是研究环境和身体的机械特性如何与生物体的神经结构耦合以产生适应性行为。感官反馈和身体与环境之间的直接机械耦合的重要性将以七鳃鳗游泳作为脊椎动物运动行为的范例进行研究。没有这些相互作用，七鳃鳗无法产生有效的游泳行为，但耦合和反馈如何调节脊髓中枢模式发生器（cpg）产生这种行为的细节尚不清楚。这种相互作用将从三个层面进行研究：感觉输入对孤立脊髓的影响，cpg和轴向肌肉组织之间的反馈回路，以及肌肉和流体环境之间的机械耦合。CPG的数学模型将被构建，以帮助解释和推广结果脊椎动物运动作为一个整体。这种结合数学模型和实验测试的不同层次的相互作用将允许对脊椎动物中枢神经系统如何与身体和环境一起作用产生运动行为进行广泛的评估。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The primary goal of this proposal is to examine how the environment and the body's mechanical properties couple with an organism's neural architecture to produce an adaptive behavior. The importance of sensory feedback and direct mechanical coupling between the body and environment will be investigated using lamprey swimming as a paradigm for vertebrate motor behavior. Lampreys cannot produce an effective swimming behavior without these interactions, but the details of how coupling and feedback modulate the spinal central pattern generators (CPGs) to produce the behavior, is unknown. The interaction will be examined at three levels: the influence of sensory input on the isolated spinal cord, the feedback loop between the CPGs and the axial musculature, and the mechanical coupling between the muscles and the fluid environment. A mathematical model of the CPG will be constructed to aid in interpretation and generalization of the results to vertebrate locomotion as a whole. This combination of mathematical modeling and experimental tests of different levels of the interaction will allow a broad evaluation of how the vertebrate central nervous system acts together with the body and environment to produce a motor behavior.