Neurons, Network and Motor Behavior

Recent advances in motor behavior research rely on detailed knowledge of thecharacteristics of the neurons and networks that generate motor behavior. At the cellular level,Neurons, Networks, and Motor Behavior describes the computational characteristics of individualneurons and how these characteristics are modified by neuromodulators. At the network and behaviorallevels, the volume discusses how network structure is dynamically modulated to produce adaptivebehavior. Comparisons of model systems throughout the animal kingdom provide insights into generalprinciples of motor control. Contributors describe how networks generate such motor behaviors aswalking, swimming, flying, scratching, reaching, breathing, feeding, and chewing. An emergingprinciple of organization is that nervous systems are remarkably efficient in constructing neuralnetworks that control multiple tasks and dynamically adapt to change.The volume contains sixsections: selection and initiation of motor patterns; generation and formation of motor patterns:cellular and systems properties; generation and formation of motor patterns: computationalapproaches; modulation and reconfiguration; short-term modulation of pattern generating circuits;and sensory modification of motor output to control whole body orientation.

Sten Grillner is Director of the Nobel Institute for Neurophysiology at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm.