Speed-Dependent Modulation of the Locomotor Behavior in Adult Mice Reveals Attractor and Transitional Gaits.

ABSTRACT: Locomotion results from an interplay between biomechanical constraints of the muscles attached to the skeleton and the neuronal circuits controlling and coordinating muscle activities. Quadrupeds exhibit a wide range of locomotor gaits. Given our advances in the genetic identification of spinal and supraspinal circuits important to locomotion in the mouse, it is now important to get a better understanding of the full repertoire of gaits in the freely walking mouse. To assess this range, young adult C57BL/6J mice were trained to walk and run on a treadmill at different locomotor speeds. Instead of using the classical paradigm defining gaits according to their footfall pattern, we combined the inter-limb coupling and the duty cycle of the stance phase, thus identifying several types of gaits

SUBMITTER: Lemieux M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4763020 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature