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Updated: Sep 27, 2026

Asymmetric Walkway: A Novel Behavioral Assay for Studying Asymmetric Locomotion
Published on: January 15, 2016
Emergence of coherent traveling waves controlling quadruped gaits in a two-dimensional spinal cord model
Alexander Kaske1, Gösta Winberg, Joakim Cöster
1Virtual Genetics Laboratory AB, 17177 Stockholm, Sweden. alexander.kaske@mtc.ki.se
Abstract:
The concerted and self-organizing behavior of spinal cord segments in generating locomotor patterns is modulated by afferent sensory information and controlled by descending pathways from the brainstem, cerebellum, or cortex. The purpose of this study was to define a minimal set of parameters that could control a similar self-organizing behavior in a two-dimensional neural network. When we implemented synaptic depression and active membrane repolarization as two properties of the neurons, the two-dimensional neural network generated traveling waves. Their wavelength and angle of propagation could be independently controlled by two parameters that modulated excitatory premotor neurons and inhibitory commissural neurons. It is further demonstrated that the selection of wave parameters corresponds to the selection of quadruped gaits.
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