Dataset Information

Strategies for swimming: explorations of the behaviour of a neuro-musculo-mechanical model of the lamprey.

ABSTRACT: Experiments were performed on a neuro-musculo-mechanical model of a lamprey, to explore the strategies for controlling swimming speed. The muscle component of the model was based on previous experiments on isolated lamprey muscle. The patterns of muscle activation were those found in EMG studies on swimming lampreys. The fluid mechanics were modelled with G.I. Taylor's simplification. Tail beat frequencies of 2-6?sec(-1) were combined with muscle activation strengths of 0.1% to 20% of maximum tetanic isometric strength. The resulting forward swimming speed and changing body shape were recorded. From the changing body shape the speed of the backward-travelling wave of curvature was calculated, as well as the ratio between the speeds of the waves of activation and curvature. For any given activation strength there was a tail beat frequency that gave maximal forward speed. Furthermore, for all the combinations of activation strength and tail beat frequency that gave such maximum swimming speeds, the ratio of the speed of the wave of curvature to the wave of muscle activation was approximately 0.75. This is similar to the ratio found in swimming lampreys.

SUBMITTER: Williams TL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4359731 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Strategies for swimming: explorations of the behaviour of a neuro-musculo-mechanical model of the lamprey.

Williams Thelma L TL McMillen Tyler T

Biology open 20150206 3

Experiments were performed on a neuro-musculo-mechanical model of a lamprey, to explore the strategies for controlling swimming speed. The muscle component of the model was based on previous experiments on isolated lamprey muscle. The patterns of muscle activation were those found in EMG studies on swimming lampreys. The fluid mechanics were modelled with G.I. Taylor's simplification. Tail beat frequencies of 2-6 sec(-1) were combined with muscle activation strengths of 0.1% to 20% of maximum te ...[more]

PMID: 25661866

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Project description:Like other animals, lampreys have a central pattern generator (CPG) circuit that activates muscles for locomotion and also adjusts the activity to respond to sensory inputs from the environment. Such a feedback system is crucial for responding appropriately to unexpected perturbations, but it is also active during normal unperturbed steady swimming and influences the baseline swimming pattern. In this study, we investigate different functional forms of body curvature-based sensory feedback and evaluate their effects on steady swimming energetics and kinematics, since little is known experimentally about the functional form of curvature feedback. The distributed CPG is modeled as chains of coupled oscillators. Pairs of phase oscillators represent the left and right sides of segments along the lamprey body. These activate muscles that flex the body and move the lamprey through a fluid environment, which is simulated using a full Navier-Stokes model. The emergent curvature of the body then serves as an input to the CPG oscillators, closing the loop. We consider two forms of feedback, each consistent with experimental results on lamprey proprioceptive sensory receptors. The first, referred to as directional feedback, excites or inhibits the oscillators on the same side, depending on the sign of a chosen gain parameter, and has the opposite effect on oscillators on the opposite side. We find that directional feedback does not affect beat frequency, but does change the duration of muscle activity. The second feedback model, referred to as magnitude feedback, provides a symmetric excitatory or inhibitory effect to oscillators on both sides. This model tends to increase beat frequency and reduces the energetic cost to the lamprey when the gain is high and positive. With both types of feedback, the body curvature has a similar magnitude. Thus, these results indicate that the same magnitude of curvature-based feedback on the CPG with different functional forms can cause distinct differences in swimming performance.

Project description:Ovine psoroptic mange (sheep scab) is a debilitating and damaging condition caused by a hypersensitivity reaction to the faecal material of the parasitic mite Psoroptes ovis. Farmers incur costs from the use of prophylactic acaricides and, if their sheep become infected, they incur the costs of therapeutic treatment plus the economic loss from reduced stock growth, lower reproductive rate, wool loss and hide damage. The unwillingness of farmers to use routine prophylactic treatment has been cited as a primary cause of the growing incidence of sheep scab in the United Kingdom (UK) since the disease was deregulated in 1992. However, if farmers behave rationally from an economic perspective, the optimum strategy that they should adopt will depend on the risk of infection and the relative costs of prophylactic versus therapeutic treatment, plus potential losses. This calculation is also complicated by the fact that the risk of infection is increased if neighbours have scab and reduced if neighbours treat prophylactically. Hence, for any farmer, the risk of infection and optimum approach to treatment is also contingent on the behaviour of neighbours, particularly when common grazing is used. Here, the relative economic costs of different prophylactic treatment strategies are calculated for upland and lowland farmers and a game theory model is used to evaluate the relative costs for a farmer and his/her neighbour under different risk scenarios. The analysis shows that prophylaxis with organophosphate (OP) dipping is a cost effective strategy, but only for upland farmers where the risk of infection is high. In all other circumstances prophylaxis is not cost effective relative to reliance on reactive (therapeutic) treatment. Hence, farmers adopting a reactive treatment policy only, are behaving in an economically rational manner. Prophylaxis and cooperation only become economically rational if the risk of scab infection is considerably higher than the current national average, or the cost of treatment is lower. Should policy makers wish to reduce the national prevalence of scab, economic incentives such as subsidising the cost of acaricides or rigorously applied financial penalties, would be required to make prophylactic treatment economically appealing to individual farmers. However, such options incur their own infrastructure and implementation costs for central government.

Dataset Information

Strategies for swimming: explorations of the behaviour of a neuro-musculo-mechanical model of the lamprey.

Publications

Strategies for swimming: explorations of the behaviour of a neuro-musculo-mechanical model of the lamprey.

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