Using the locust preparation it was possible to show that rhythmic motor patterns can be generated in the absence of patterned sensory inputs. It was again locust flight that was used to demonstrate the importance of sensory control in producing an adaptive motor pattern. Indeed one important characteristic of many rhythmic behaviors is the need of constant modulatory control to produce a virtually endless repertoire of variation on a single motor pattern. We are interested in the interactions between the neural circuit and endocrine factors specific to the different behavioral states. In a collaborative project with Prof. Lewi Stone of the Zoology Dept.
Synchronization is fundamental to biological systems.
Our multidisciplinary study consist of development of mathematical and statistical tools for detecting synchronization in time series, continuing with the application of these tools to our system, and finally, using experimental data for mathematical modeling of the circuit. The figure on the right shows an example of neuromodulation of rhythmic behavior. Dopamine modulation of neuronal and network output in the pyloric network in the lobster stomatogastric ganglion. Locust phase polymorphism is defined as the ability of some grasshopper species to show within the species, forms or morphs that differ in their morphology as well as their biology, dependent on the population density. The polymorphic characteristics are quantitative, there are innumerable intermediates between the extreme phases and the change is reversible.