Abstract
Terrestrial locomotion requires animals to coordinate their limb movements to efficiently traverse their environment. While previous studies in hexapods have reported that limb coordination patterns can vary substantially, the structure of this variability is not yet well understood. Here, we characterized the symmetric and asymmetric components of variation in walking kinematics in the genetic model organism Drosophila. We found that Drosophila use a single continuum of coordination patterns without evidence for preferred configurations. Spontaneous symmetric variability was associated with modulation of a single control parameter-stance duration-while asymmetric variability consisted of small, limb-specific modulations along multiple dimensions of the underlying symmetric pattern. Commands that modulated walking speed, originating from artificial neural activation or from the visual system, evoked modulations consistent with spontaneous behavior. Our findings suggest that Drosophila employ a low-dimensional control architecture, which provides a framework for understanding the neural circuits that regulate hexapod legged locomotion.
Highlights
Legged locomotion requires flexible coordination of limbs in varied, changing environments. This coordination has been studied in a variety of model organisms, from camels and rhinoceros to ferrets, rats, beetles, and ants (Alexander and Jayes, 1983; Buschges et al, 2008)
To understand how insects coordinate their limbs during terrestrial locomotion, we investigated the variability in walking patterns in the fruit fly Drosophila, where we could record behavior in many flies and manipulate neural signals with genetic tools
To fully sample the space of limb coordination patterns, we developed an automated method for video annotation (Figure 1)
Summary
Legged locomotion requires flexible coordination of limbs in varied, changing environments. Some studies report distinct gaits in insects (Ayali et al, 2015; Bender et al, 2011; Burrows, 1996; Graham, 1972; Mendes et al, 2013; Pereira et al, 2019), many note a high degree of variability in limb coordination, with intermediate patterns intermixed with movements that resemble canonical gaits (Ayali et al, 2015; Mendes et al, 2013; Pereira et al, 2019; Strauß and Heisenberg, 1990; Szczecinski et al, 2018; Wosnitza et al, 2013; Zollikofer, 1994).
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