Vertebrate Pattern Generation: Overview

Vertebrate Central Pattern Generators The central and peripheral nervous systems in vertebrates contain many types of central pattern generators (CPGs) that generate and control various rhythmic movements. These CPGs control many important functions, including different forms of locomotion, such as swimming, walking, running, and flying, and non-locomotor processes and behaviors, such as breathing, swallowing, chewing, mastication, scratching, whisking (in rodents), and singing (in birds). This review focuses on computational models of locomotion and breathing in mammals, which are briefly observed below. Other known models of vertebrate CPGs include CPGs controlling swimming in Xenopus tadpoles (Wolf et al. 2009; ▶Rhythm Generation in Young Xenopus Tadpoles), zebra fish (Hill et al. 2005; Knudsen et al. 2006), and lamprey (Grillner et al. 2007); CPGs controlling swimming and walking in salamander (Ijspeert 2001; ▶Control of Aquatic and Terrestrial Gaits in Salamander); CPGs controlling locomotion and scratching in turtles (Hao et al. 2011; ▶Control of Locomotion and Scratching in Turtles); and CPG responsible for rhythm generation in embryonic chick spinal cord (Tabak et al. 2001; ▶Rhythm Generation in Embryonic Chick Spinal Cord).