Topic: locomotor learning

Every movement we make requires us to precisely coordinate muscle activity across our body in space and time. In this talk I will describe our efforts to understand how the brain generates flexible, coordinated movement. We have taken a behavior-centric approach to this problem, starting with the development of quantitative frameworks for mouse locomotion (LocoMouse; Machado et al., eLife 2015, 2020) and locomotor learning, in which mice adapt their locomotor symmetry in response to environmental perturbations (Darmohray et al., Neuron 2019). Combined with genetic circuit dissection, these stu

Locomotion involves the precise coordination of different body parts. On structured surfaces, animals additionally have to adapt their gait to properties of the environment. To study the dynamical principles of locomotor learning in novel environments, we trained mice to walk on a motorized treadmill with evenly spaced rungs. We extracted paw trajectories from behavioral videos and analyzed stepping patterns over the course of two weeks of learning. In early sessions, mouse gaits were highly irregular, with variable inter-paw coordination. Over sessions, coordination between paws increased, le