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Control of swing movement: influences of differently shaped substrate

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Abstract

Stick insects were studied while walking on different substrates. The trajectories of swing movements are recorded. The starting position of a swing movement is varied in vertical direction and in the direction parallel to body long axis. The trajectories found cannot be predicted by an ANN (Swingnet1) proposed earlier to describe swing movements. However, a modified network (Swingnet2) allows for a satisfying description of the behavioral results. Walking on a narrow treadwheel leads to different swing trajectories compared to walking on a broad treadwheel. These trajectories cannot be described by Swingnet1, too. The form of the swing trajectory may depend on the direction of the force vector by which the leg acts on the ground in the preceding stance. Based on this assumption, an alternative hypothesis (Swingnet3) is proposed that can quantitatively describe all results of our experiment. When stick insects walk from a wide to a narrow substrate, transition between different swing trajectories does not change gradually over time. Rather, the form of the trajectory is determined by the current sensory input of the leg on a step-to-step basis. Finally, four different avoidance reflexes and their implementation into swing movements are investigated and described by a quantitative simulation.

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Abbreviations

AEP:

Anterior extreme position

CSP:

Coxal swing position

CxTr:

Coxa–Trochanter joint

FeTi:

Femur–Tibia joint

PEP:

Posterior extreme position

SEP:

Swing extreme position

ThCx:

Thorax–Coxa joint

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by DFG grant Cr58/10-1 and by the EC IST program SPARK. Experiments comply with the “Principles of animal care”, publication No. 86-23, revised 1985 of the National Institute of Health, and also with the current laws of the Federal Republic of Germany.

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  1. Faculty of Biology, University of Bielefeld, Postfach 100131, 33501, Bielefeld, Germany

    Michael Schumm & Holk Cruse

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  1. Michael Schumm
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  2. Holk Cruse
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Correspondence to Holk Cruse.

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Schumm, M., Cruse, H. Control of swing movement: influences of differently shaped substrate. J Comp Physiol A 192, 1147–1164 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-006-0147-0

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