The speed-curvature power law in Drosophila larval locomotion.

ABSTRACT: We report the discovery that the locomotor trajectories of Drosophila larvae follow the power-law relationship between speed and curvature previously found in the movements of human and non-human primates. Using high-resolution behavioural tracking in controlled but naturalistic sensory environments, we tested the law in maggots tracing different trajectory types, from reaching-like movements to scribbles. For most but not all flies, we found that the law holds robustly, with an exponent close to three-quarters rather than to the usual two-thirds found in almost all human situations, suggesting dynamic effects adding on purely kinematic constraints. There are different hypotheses for the origin of the law in primates, one invoking cortical computations, another viscoelastic muscle properti

SUBMITTER: Zago M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5095195 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature