Coupled nonlinear oscillators and the symmetries of animal gaits (Q1313238)

Animal locomotion typically employs several distinct periodic patterns of leg movements, known as gaits. It has long been observed that most gaits possess a degree of symmetry. The authors present some remarkable parallels between the generalities of coupled nonlinear oscillators and the observed symmetries of gaits, and describe how this observation might impose constraints on the general structure of the neural circuits, i.e. central pattern generators, that control locomotion. They compare the symmetries of gaits with the symmetry-breaking oscillation patterns that should be expected in various networks of symmetrically coupled nonlinear oscillators. They discuss the possibility that transitions between gaits may be modeled as symmetry-breaking bifurcations of such oscillator networks. The emphasis is on general model-independent features of such networks, rather than on specific models. Each type of network generates a characteristic set of gait symmetries, so the results may be interpreted as an analysis of the general structure required of a central pattern generator in order to produce the types of gait observed in the natural world. The approach leads to natural hierarchies of gaits, ordered by symmetry, and to natural sequences of gait bifurcations.