Encyclopedia of Computational Neuroscience

Living Edition
| Editors: Dieter Jaeger, Ranu Jung

Comparative Analysis of Half-Center Central Pattern Generators (CPGs)

  • Jonathan E. RubinEmail author
Living reference work entry

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7320-6_39-2
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Definition

CPGs are networks of neurons that can produce rhythmic activity, featuring a stereotyped sequence of phases that repeats in a periodic-like manner, without receiving rhythmic inputs from an outside source. Half-center CPGs, also known as half-center oscillators, are CPGs consisting of two components connected by reciprocal synaptic inhibition. While the coupled network exhibits a two-phase pattern, with one component exhibiting a high activity level and the other at a low activity level in each phase, the individual components are not able to switch between sustained high and low activity phases in isolation. Comparative analysis of half-center CPGs is the study of how specific features of half-center CPGs translate into particular properties.

Detailed Description

A half-center CPG consists of a pair of components and the coupling between them. Each component may be an individual neuron or a population of neurons. In a half-center oscillation, each component switches back...

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Department of MathematicsUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghUSA

Section editors and affiliations

  • Jessica Ausborn
    • 1
  • Ilya Rybak
    • 2
  1. 1.Department of Neurobiology and AnatomyDrexel University, College of MedicinePhiladelphiaUSA
  2. 2.Department of Neurobiology and AnatomyDrexel University College of MedicinePhiladelphiaUSA