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A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform

Spinal reflex is essential to the robust locomotion of quadruped animals. To investigate the reflex mechanisms, we developed a quadruped robot platform that emulates the neuromuscular dynamics of animals. The leg is designed to be highly back-drivable, and four Hill-type muscles and neuronal pathway...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Tanikawa, Toyoaki, Masuda, Yoichi, Ishikawa, Masato
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8060480/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33897400
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2021.636864
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author Tanikawa, Toyoaki
Masuda, Yoichi
Ishikawa, Masato
author_facet Tanikawa, Toyoaki
Masuda, Yoichi
Ishikawa, Masato
author_sort Tanikawa, Toyoaki
collection PubMed
description Spinal reflex is essential to the robust locomotion of quadruped animals. To investigate the reflex mechanisms, we developed a quadruped robot platform that emulates the neuromuscular dynamics of animals. The leg is designed to be highly back-drivable, and four Hill-type muscles and neuronal pathways are simulated on each leg using software. By searching for the reflex circuit that contributes to the generation of steady gait in cats through robotic experiments, we found a simple reflex circuit that could produce leg trajectories and a steady gait. In addition, this circuit can reproduce the experimental behavior observed in cats. As a major contribution of this study, we show that the underlying structure of the reflex circuit is the reciprocal coupling between extensor muscles via excitatory neural pathways. In the walking experiments on the robot, a steady gait and experimental behaviors of walking cats emerged from the reflex circuit without any central pattern generators. Furthermore, to take advantage of walking experiments using a neurophysiological robotic platform, we conducted experiments in which a part of the proposed reflex circuit was disconnected for a certain period of time during walking. The results showed that the prolongation of the stance phase caused by the reciprocal excitatory reflex contributed greatly to the generation of a steady gait.
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spelling pubmed-80604802021-04-23 A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform Tanikawa, Toyoaki Masuda, Yoichi Ishikawa, Masato Front Neurorobot Neuroscience Spinal reflex is essential to the robust locomotion of quadruped animals. To investigate the reflex mechanisms, we developed a quadruped robot platform that emulates the neuromuscular dynamics of animals. The leg is designed to be highly back-drivable, and four Hill-type muscles and neuronal pathways are simulated on each leg using software. By searching for the reflex circuit that contributes to the generation of steady gait in cats through robotic experiments, we found a simple reflex circuit that could produce leg trajectories and a steady gait. In addition, this circuit can reproduce the experimental behavior observed in cats. As a major contribution of this study, we show that the underlying structure of the reflex circuit is the reciprocal coupling between extensor muscles via excitatory neural pathways. In the walking experiments on the robot, a steady gait and experimental behaviors of walking cats emerged from the reflex circuit without any central pattern generators. Furthermore, to take advantage of walking experiments using a neurophysiological robotic platform, we conducted experiments in which a part of the proposed reflex circuit was disconnected for a certain period of time during walking. The results showed that the prolongation of the stance phase caused by the reciprocal excitatory reflex contributed greatly to the generation of a steady gait. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-04-08 /pmc/articles/PMC8060480/ /pubmed/33897400 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2021.636864 Text en Copyright © 2021 Tanikawa, Masuda and Ishikawa. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Tanikawa, Toyoaki
Masuda, Yoichi
Ishikawa, Masato
A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform
title A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform
title_full A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform
title_fullStr A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform
title_full_unstemmed A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform
title_short A Reciprocal Excitatory Reflex Between Extensors Reproduces the Prolongation of Stance Phase in Walking Cats: Analysis on a Robotic Platform
title_sort reciprocal excitatory reflex between extensors reproduces the prolongation of stance phase in walking cats: analysis on a robotic platform
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8060480/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33897400
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbot.2021.636864
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