Effects of local oscillator frequency on intersegmental coordination in the lamprey locomotor CPG: theory and...

1. Experiments have been performed on in vitro preparations of lamprey spinal cord bathed in D-glutamate, which induces a pattern of activity recorded from ventral roots that is similar to that seen in the intact animal during swimming. The frequency of fictive swimming increases with increasing D-glutamate concentration, but intersegmental phase lag remains unaffected. 2. The effects on intersegmental phase lags of unequal activation of the rostral and caudal halves of a preparation were determined. Unequal activation was produced by placing a diffusion barrier in the middle of the chamber and perfusing the two halves with different concentrations of D-glutamate. 3. Within the rostral compartment, the phase lag increased from control when the rostral D-glutamate concentration was higher than the caudal concentration, and decreased from control when it was lower. By contrast, the phase lags within the caudal compartment did not depend on the ratio of D-glutamate concentration between the two compartments. 4. The frequency of the ventral root activity during differential activation was not significantly different from that of control experiments that had the same concentration as in the rostral compartment. 5. The results are discussed within the context of the mathematical analysis of chains of coupled oscillators by Kopell and Ermentrout and other current theories about the mechanisms of intersegmental coordination in the lamprey.