Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Search research articles

Related Experiment Videos

Low dimensionality of supraspinally induced force fields

A d'Avella¹, E Bizzi

¹Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, USA.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

|June 24, 1998

Summary

This study suggests frog spinal cord circuitry is modular. Vestibular nerve stimulation generated force fields that can be explained by combinations of a few spinal cord modules.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Recurrent pericarditis in children: Clinical and therapeutic differences from adults.

International journal of cardiology·2026

Same author

Depemokimab and the twice-yearly regimen: pharmacological implications and therapeutic positioning in severe eosinophilic respiratory diseases.

Frontiers in immunology·2026

Same author

Fetal-hope study: Home monitoring of fetal heart rate in SSA + pregnant women: Rationale and design.

European journal of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive biology·2024

Same author

HyalOne® in the treatment of symptomatic hip OA - data from the ANTIAGE register: seven years of observation.

European review for medical and pharmacological sciences·2017

Same author

An open randomized active-controlled clinical trial with low-dose SKA cytokines versus DMARDs evaluating low disease activity maintenance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.

Drug design, development and therapy·2017

Same author

Differences Regarding Branded HA in Italy, Part 2: Data from Clinical Studies on Knee, Hip, Shoulder, Ankle, Temporomandibular Joint, Vertebral Facets, and Carpometacarpal Joint.

Clinical medicine insights. Arthritis and musculoskeletal disorders·2016

Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Computational Biology

Background:

Spinal cord circuitry in frogs exhibits modular organization, where functional units generate specific motor outputs.
These motor modules produce force fields, characterized by isometric forces at the ankle across the leg's workspace.
Modules can be independently combined, with their force fields summing linearly.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate if force fields from supraspinal structure activation result from combinations of a small number of spinal modules.
To determine the dimensionality of force fields evoked by vestibular nerve stimulation in frogs.

Main Methods:

Recording force fields generated by electrical stimulation of the vestibular nerve in seven frogs.
Performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the recorded force fields to assess dimensionality.

Related Experiment Videos

Main Results:

Principal component analysis revealed that the first five principal components explained 94% of the total data variation.
This indicates a low dimensionality in the set of force fields evoked by vestibular stimulation.

Conclusions:

The findings support the hypothesis that vestibular-evoked force fields are generated by combinations of a limited number of spinal cord modules.
This suggests a fundamental principle of motor control involving the combinatorial use of basic motor units.