Flight power muscles have a coordinated, causal role in controlling hawkmoth pitch turns.

ABSTRACT: Flying insects solve a daunting control problem of generating a patterned and precise motor program to stay airborne and generate agile maneuvers. In this motor program, each muscle encodes information about movement in precise spike timing down to the millisecond scale. Whereas individual muscles share information about movement, we do not know whether they have separable effects on an animal's motion, or whether muscles functionally interact such that the effects of any muscle's timing depend heavily on the state of the entire musculature. To answer these questions, we performed spike-resolution electromyography and electrical stimulation in the hawkmoth Manduca sexta during tethered flapping. We specifically explored how flight power muscles contribute to pitch control. Combining correl

SUBMITTER: Wood LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11698061 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature