However, the intellectual link between these two groups of scientists is often difficult to make. In particular, she studies the isolated spinal cord of a primitive vertebrate, the lamprey. The work is focused on the mechanisms underlying the generation of an organized motorbehavior, locomotion. She works with mathematicians to combine dynamical systems and other computational methods with conventional experimental and behavioral techniques to unravel the intersegmental coordination seen in swimming movements. The work is also aimed at the deeper issue of general organization of nervous systems and neurocomputation in behavior.
Detailed questions focus on the ontogeny of the system, the basic structure of the network.
Representative Publications Mellen, N., Kiemel, T., Cohen, A.H. 1995. Correlational analysis of fictive swimming in the lamprey reveals strong functional intersegmental coupling. Cohen, A.H., Guan, L., Harris, J., Jung, T., and Kiemel, T. 1996. Interaction between the caudal brainstem and the lamprey central pattern generator for locomotion. Jung, R., Kiemel, T., Cohen, H. 1996 Dynamical behavior of a neural network model of locomotor control in the lamprey J. Neurophysiol.