This study investigated whether a mirror mechanism exists for bipedal locomotion. We employed the soleus (plantar flexor) Hoffman reflex to investigate corticospinal excitability at the spinal level during observation of bipedal locomotion. The differential amplitude modulation of the left soleus Hoffman reflex during observation of bipedal heel-stepping (plantar dorsiflexion) (324+/-53 microV)...

Locomotion is one of the most important capabilities for virtual human agents in interactive applications, because it allows them to navigate their environment. Locomotion controllers in interactive applications typically work by blending and concatenating clips of keyframe or motion capture motion that represent individual locomotion actions (e.g. walk cycles), to generate sequences of natural...

Generating composite human motion such as locomotion and gestures is important for interactive applications, such as interactive storytelling and computer games. In interactive story environments, CG characters do not merely stand in one position. Rather, they should be able to compose gestures and locomotion based on the discourse of the story and the locations of objects in the scene. Thus, i...

All animals use olfactory information to perform tasks essential to their survival. Odors typically activate multiple olfactory receptor neuron (ORN) classes and are therefore represented by the patterns of active ORNs. How the patterns of active ORN classes are decoded to drive behavior is under intense investigation. In this study, using Drosophila as a model system, we investigate the logic ...

Throughout vertebrates, cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons (CSF-cNs) are ciliated cells surrounding the central canal in the ventral spinal cord. Their contribution to modulate locomotion remains undetermined. Recently, we have shown CSF-cNs modulate locomotion by directly projecting onto the locomotor central pattern generators (CPGs), but the sensory modality these cells convey to spinal ...

Locomotion, one of the most basic robotic functions, has been widely studied for several types of robots. As for self-reconfigurable modular robots, there are two types of locomotion; one type is realized as a series of self-reconfiguration and the other is realized as a whole body motion such as walking and crawling. Even for the latter type of locomotion, designing control method is more diff...

Recovery from sensory deprivation is slow and incomplete in adult visual cortex. In this study, we show that visual stimulation during locomotion, which increases the gain of visual responses in primary visual cortex, dramatically enhances recovery in the mouse. Excitatory neurons regained normal levels of response, while narrow-spiking (inhibitory) neurons remained less active. Visual stimulat...

Sensory processing is dependent upon behavioral state. In mice, locomotion is accompanied by changes in cortical state and enhanced visual responses. Although recent studies have begun to elucidate intrinsic cortical mechanisms underlying this effect, the neural circuits that initially couple locomotion to cortical processing are unknown. The mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) has been shown ...

The study of terrestrial locomotion has compelling applications ranging from design of legged robots to development of novel prosthetic devices. From a first-principles perspective, the dynamics of legged locomotion seem overwhelmingly complex as nonlinear rigid body dynamics couple to a granular substrate through viscoelastic limbs. However, a surfeit of empirical data demonstrates that animal...

Precise control of speed during locomotion is essential for adaptation of behavior in different environmental contexts [1-4]. A central question in locomotion lies in understanding which neural populations set locomotor frequency during slow and fast regimes. Tackling this question in vivo requires additional non-invasive tools to silence large populations of neurons during active locomotion. H...