The work is focused on the mechanisms underlying the generation of an organized motor behavior, locomotion. In addition to the normal animal, we also study the process of regeneration in the lamprey spinal cord. The animal spontaneously regenerates after injury, but the regeneration can be either functional or dys functional. We study how the spinal cord is organized under the two sets of conditions in hopes of preventing problematic regeneration in people when regeneration is finally achieved in human spinal cord injury patients. We use neurophysiology, immunohistochemistry, computational and neuromorphic engineering to disentangle the various threads of the system.
People using the diverse experimental methods all interact and inform each other.
Thus, we hope to understand a complex behavior in a relatively simple animal, and apply the understanding to a much more complex animal - the human. Correlational analysis of fictive swimming in the lamprey reveals strong functional intersegmental coupling. Based on a Stochastic Phase Model. Cohen, A.H., Guan,L., Pate,V., and Kiemel, T. 1999. Temperature can alter the functional outcome of spinal cord regeneration in larval lampreys.