A role for sensory inputs in the generation of the flight motor pattern.

Rhythmic behaviours such as breathing, walking or flying are now understood to be generated by the interplay between patterns of neural activity generated in the central nervous system and sensory inputs. Many of the pioneering insights into the generation and control of rhythmic motor patterns were made by studying the neural circuits generating the locust flight motor pattern. Malcolm Burrows’ classic 1975 paper on the role of the wing stretch receptors in patterning the activity of flight motor neurons in the locust was highly influential in determining both how sensory feedback influences centrally generated rhythmic motor activity and the structure of reflex arcs.