Event:

How do rhythmic motor systems achieve both robustness to perturbations and sensitivity to variable operating conditions? Do limit cycle (LC) oscillators and chain reflexes (CR) capture two extremes along a continuum of central pattern generation models? We investigate the consequences of different dynamical architectures for incorporating sensory input in motor control, and quantitatively evaluate the advantages of intermediate architectures, such as stable heteroclinic channels, which combine features of both LC and CR dynamics. As a model system we focus on a tractable experimental preparation, feeding pattern generation in the marine mollusk Aplysia californica. (Joint work with Hillel Chiel, Jeff Gill, David Lyttle, and Kendrick Shaw, Case Western Reserve University.)