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Understanding principles of neurolocomotion requires the synthesis of neural activity, sensory feedback, and biomechanics. The nematode C. elegans is an ideal model organism for studying locomotion in an integrated neuromechanical setting because its nervous system is well characterized and its forward swimming gait adapts to the surrounding fluid using sensory feedback. However, it is not understood how the gait emerges from mechanical forces, neuronal coupling, and sensory feedback mechanisms. Here, an integrated neuromechanical model of C. elegans forward locomotion is developed and analyzed. The model captures the experimentally observed gait adaptation over a wide range of parameters, provided that the muscle response to input from the nervous system is faster than the body response to changes in internal and external forces. The model is analyzed using the theory of weakly coupled oscillators to identify the relative roles of body mechanics, neural coupling, and proprioceptive coupling in coordinating the undulatory gait. The analysis shows that the wavelength of body undulations is set by the relative strengths of these three coupling forms. The model suggests that the experimentally observed decrease in wavelength in response to increasing fluid viscosity is the result of an increase in the relative strength of mechanical coupling, which promotes a short wavelength.

Note that this seminar is online at https://ucdavisdss.zoom.us/j/99480513904. Please email Rishidev Chaudhuri for the password or see the math bio seminar series email.