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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 31, 2007, 27(5):1123-1128; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.4198-06.2007

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Brief Communications
The Critical Role of Locomotion Mechanics in Decoding Sensory Systems

Noah J. Cowan¹ and Eric S. Fortune²

Departments of ¹Mechanical Engineering and ²Psychological and Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218

Correspondence should be addressed to Noah J. Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Email: ncowan{at}jhu.edu

How do neural systems process sensory information to control locomotion? The weakly electric knifefish Eigenmannia, an ideal model for studying sensorimotor control, swims to stabilize the sensory image of a sinusoidally moving refuge. Tracking performance is best at stimulus frequencies less than 1 Hz. Kinematic analysis, which is widely used in the study of neural control of movement, predicts commensurately low-pass sensory processing for control. The inclusion of Newtonian mechanics in the analysis of the behavior, however, categorically shifts the prediction: this analysis predicts that sensory processing is high pass. The counterintuitive prediction that a low-pass behavior is controlled by a high-pass neural filter nevertheless matches previously reported but poorly understood high-pass filtering seen in electrosensory afferents and downstream neurons. Furthermore, a model incorporating the high-pass controller matches animal behavior, whereas the model with the low-pass controller does not and is unstable. Because locomotor mechanics are similar in a wide array of animals, these data suggest that such high-pass sensory filters may be a general mechanism used for task-level locomotion control. Furthermore, these data highlight the critical role of mechanical analyses in addition to widely used kinematic analyses in the study of neural control systems.

Key words: electroreception; closed-loop model; Gymnotiformes; ribbon fin; sensorimotor control; Eigenmannia; untethered

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Received Sept. 26, 2006; revised Dec. 8, 2006; accepted Dec. 20, 2006.

Correspondence should be addressed to Noah J. Cowan, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 North Charles Street, Baltimore, MD 21218. Email: ncowan{at}jhu.edu

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