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Kinematics and motor activity during tethered walking and turning in the cockroach, Blaberus discoidalis

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Abstract

When insects turn from walking straight, their legs have to follow different motor patterns. In order to examine such pattern change precisely, we stimulated single antenna of an insect, thereby initiating its turning behavior, tethered over a lightly oiled glass plate. The resulting behavior included asymmetrical movements of prothoracic and mesothoracic legs. The mesothoracic leg on the inside of the turn (in the apparent direction of turning) extended the coxa-trochanter and femur-tibia joints during swing rather than during stance as in walking, while the outside mesothoracic leg kept a slow walking pattern. Electromyograms in mesothoracic legs revealed consistent changes in the motor neuron activity controlling extension of the coxa-trochanter and femur-tibia joints. In tethered walking, depressor trochanter activity consistently preceded slow extensor tibia activity. This pattern was reversed in the inside mesothoracic leg during turning. Also for turning, extensor and depressor motor neurons of the inside legs were activated in swing phase instead of stance. Turning was also examined in free ranging animals. Although more variable, some trials resembled the pattern generated by tethered animals. The distinct inter-joint and inter-leg coordination between tethered turning and walking, therefore, provides a good model to further study the neural control of changing locomotion patterns.

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Abbreviations

COM :

Center of mass

CPG :

Central pattern generator

CTr :

Coxa-trochanter

Df :

Fast depressor trochanter neuron

Ds :

Depressor trochanter neuron

EMG :

Electromyogram

FETi :

Fast extensor tibia neuron

FTi :

Femur-tibia

SETi :

Slow extensor tibia neuron

T1 :

Prothoracic

T2 :

Mesothoracic

T3 :

Metathoracic

ThC :

Thorax-coxa

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr. Mark Willis and Dr. Angela Ridgel for their helpful suggestions and comments on this manuscript, Allan Pollack for his technical support, and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments. This work is supported by Eglin AFB Grant F08630-03-01-0003 to RER.

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  1. Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106-7080, USA

    Laiyong Mu & Roy E. Ritzmann

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  1. Laiyong Mu
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Correspondence to Laiyong Mu.

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Mu, L., Ritzmann, R.E. Kinematics and motor activity during tethered walking and turning in the cockroach, Blaberus discoidalis . J Comp Physiol A 191, 1037–1054 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-005-0029-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-005-0029-x

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