5,710 research outputs found
A simulation model of the locomotion controllers for the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans
This paper presents a simple yet biologicallygrounded
model of the C. elegans neural circuit
for forward locomotive control. The model considers
a limited subset of the C. elegans nervous
system, within a minimal two-dimensional environment.
Despite its reductionist approach, this
model is sufficiently rich to generate patterns of
undulations that are reminiscent of the biological
worm’s behaviour and qualitatively similar to
patterns which have been shown to generate locomotion
in a model of a richer physical environment.
Interestingly, and contrary to conventional
wisdom about neural circuits for motor control,
our results are consistent with the conjecture that
the worm may be relying on feedback from the
shape of its body to generate undulations that
propel it forward or backward
On the boundedness of asymptotic stability regions for the stochastic theta method
The stochastic theta method gives a computational procedure for simulating ordinary stochastic differential equations. The method involves a free parameter, THgr. Here, we characterise the precise value of THgr beyond which the region of linear asymptotic stability of the method becomes unbounded. The cutoff point is seen to differ from that in the deterministic case. Computations that suggest further results are also given
An integrated neuro-mechanical model of C. elegans forward locomotion
One of the most tractable organisms for the study of nervous
systems is the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, whose locomotion in
particular has been the subject of a number of models. In this paper we
present a first integrated neuro-mechanical model of forward locomotion.
We find that a previous neural model is robust to the addition of a
body with mechanical properties, and that the integrated model produces
oscillations with a more realistic frequency and waveform than the neural
model alone. We conclude that the body and environment are likely to
be important components of the worm’s locomotion subsystem
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