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Workshop 4: Neuromechanics of Locomotion (March 31- April 4, 2008)

Organizers: Philip J. Holmes, Robert J. Full, and Ansgar Bueschges

Workshop 4 focuses on the question of how animals are deceptively simple. They push against the world, with legs, fins, tails, wings, or their whole bodies, and the rest is Newton's third and second laws. But of course locomotion emerges from complex interactions among animals' neural, sensory and motor systems, their muscle-body dynamics, and their environments. Three broad approaches reflect this:

  1. Neurobiology has successfully studied the role of central pattern generators (CPGs) in the control of locomotion. CPGs are networks of neurons that can generate muscular activity in the absense of sensory feedback. By its action, the nervous system can generate a basic neural output that can signal the muscles when to contract. In this mode, the nervous system tells the muscles what to do and muscles pass the message on to limbs, which move the body.
  2. A closely related approach concentrates on proprioceptive feedback in intralimb and interlimb coordination for shaping locomotory patterns. Thus, what the limbs are doing now, tells them what to do next.
  3. Biomechanical studies focus on body-limb-environment dynamics and often ignore neural detail. Thus, Newtonian mechanics, with (mostly) passively-generated forces, tell the body what it must do.

All three approaches have generated rich mathematical models of individual neurons and circuits, sensory pathways and state estimators, and body-limb mechanics. Further mathematical modeling, at various spatial and temporal scales, can play a central role in synthesizing these approaches into neuromechanical descriptions of locomotion. Thus, Hodgkin-Huxley meets Newton with A.V. Hill as matchmaker.

This workshop, and the closely-related ones on muscle biomechanics (Workshop 2) and neuroengineering (Workshop 5) will emphasize the development of integrative models. The major mathematical tools will include dynamical systems, stochastic ODE, control theory, and (non-)classical mechanics with intermittent contacts and impacts in running and walking, and unsteady fluid mechanics in swimming and flight.

Schedule

Monday, March 31
8:00-8:30am Welcome reception with continental breakfast
8:30-9:00am Welcome and introduction: Avner Friedman and Phil Holmes
9:00-10:30am Ansgar Bueschges and Keir Pearson
10:30-11:00am Break
11:00-12:30pm Bob Full and Orjan Ekeburg
12:30-2:00pm Lunch break
2:00-3:30pm Phil Holmes and Noah Cowan
3:30-4:00pm Break
4:00-5:30pm Andy Ruina and Dan Koditschek
Tuesday, April 1
9:00-10:30am Sten Grillner, Thelma Williams and Tyler McMillen
10:30-11:00am Break
11:00-12:30pm Lisa Fauci and Keith Sillar
12:30-2:00pm Lunch break
2:00-3:30pm Tetsuya Iwasaki and Eric Tytell
3:30-4:00pm Break
4:00-4:45pm Avis Cohen
5:30-6:30pm Bob Full public lecture
6:30pm Reception in Jennings Hall, 3rd Floor
Wednesday, April 2
9:00-10:30am Jean-Marie Cabelguen and Auke Ijspeert
10:30-11:00am Break
11:00-12:30pm Anke Borgmann and Andrew Biewener
12:30-2:00pm Lunch break
2:00-3:30pm Josef Schmitz and Volker Durr
3:30-4:00pm Break
4:00-5:30pm Scott Hooper and Stefan Schaal
Thursday, April 3
9:00-10:30am Roy Ritzmann and Sasha Zill
10:30-11:00am Break
11:00-12:30pm Kiisa Nishikawa and Andre Seyfarth
12:30-2:00pm Lunch break
2:00-3:30pm Matthias Gruhn, Francisco Valero-Cuevas
3:30-4:00pm Break
4:00-4:45pm Reinhard Blickhan
6:00pm Banquet dinner at Holiday Inn on the Lane
Friday, April 4
9:00-10:30am Jane Wang, John Guckenheimer and Shai Revzen
10:30-11:00am Break
11:00-12:30pm Lena Ting and John Miller (Dublin)
12:30-2:00pm Lunch break
2:00-2:45pm Manoj Srinivasan
2:45-3:15pm Break
3:15-4:30pm Panel discussions: John Guckenheimer, Avis Cohen, Phil Holmes, Robert Full, and Ansgar Bueschges