Jh. Belanger et Ba. Trimmer, Combined kinematic and electromyographic analyses of proleg function during crawling by the caterpillar Manduca sexta, J COMP PH A, 186(11), 2000, pp. 1031-1039
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Physiology
Journal title
JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE PHYSIOLOGY A-SENSORY NEURAL AND BEHAVIORAL PHYSIOLOGY
The planta retractor muscles in the prolegs of Manduca sexta caterpillars a
re a frequently-used model system for investigating a number of problems in
neurobiology. We have combined kinematic and electromyogram analysis of pr
oleg movements during crawling to examine the roles of these muscles during
normal behavior. We found that retractor muscle activity is highly stereot
yped, and that the primary function of these muscles is to disengage the cr
ochets at the tip of the proleg for the swing phase of crawling. The durati
on of activity of the muscles was tightly coupled to the phasing of crawlin
g behavior. The stepping patterns of animals changed to accommodate variati
ons in the substrate, but the relative timing of retractor muscle activity
was unaffected. There were no clear correlations between the various proper
ties of motoneuronal input to the muscle (duration of activity, number of s
pikes, peak frequency of spikes) and the resulting muscle length change. Pe
rhaps because it functions partially as a hydrostat, this may represent a n
euromuscular system in which a significant part of the control algorithm is
embedded in its morphology.