Article
Neurosciences
Dulce M. Mariscal, Erin V. L. Vasudevan, Laura A. Malone, Gelsy Torres-Oviedo, Amy J. Bastian
Summary: Humans have the ability to adapt and correct movement errors based on changes in the body and environment. This study suggests that the ability to adapt locomotor patterns in different environments decreases with age, indicating that age and experience play crucial roles in regulating the specificity of motor learning.
Article
Sport Sciences
Masamichi Okudaira, Steffen Willwacher, Raki Kawama, Kazuki Ota, Satoru Tanigawa
Summary: This study found that uphill sprinting at different slopes has unique kinematic features, with steeper slopes leading to greater joint angles and ROM, as well as more anti-phase coordination patterns. Moderate inclinations result in biomechanical adaptations similar to the late acceleration phase of flat sprinting.
JOURNAL OF SPORTS SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Rachid Ramadan, Fabian Meischein, Hendrik Reimann
Summary: In this study, a neuromechanical model is proposed that combines movement goals and motor plans to allow for flexible adjustment of walking parameters. The model can walk with a wide range of gait patterns by choosing a small number of high-level control parameters, while keeping the parameters governing the low-level reflex loops fixed. The model is able to generalize learned behavior to gait patterns it had not encountered before, and can transition between different gaits without loss of balance by switching to a new set of control parameters in real time.
FRONTIERS IN BIOENGINEERING AND BIOTECHNOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xiaotian Zhang, Noel Naughton, Tejaswin Parthasarathy, Mattia Gazzola
Summary: This study looks into the locomotion strategies of limbless terrestrial animals, explaining 3D gait alterations and adaptations to heterogeneous terrains through local friction modulation. By modeling and experiments, the authors provide insights into passive snake navigation in complex topographies and propose a unified view connecting active and passive 3D mechanics with heterogeneous interfacial effects. They also present a mathematical argument for the evolution of sidewinding gaits and reinforce the analogy between limbless terrestrial locomotion and optics.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jesse F. Senko, Kayla M. Burgher, Maria del Mar Mancha-Cisneros, Brendan J. Godley, Irene Kinan-Kelly, Trevor Fox, Frances Humber, Volker Koch, Andrew T. Smith, Bryan P. Wallace
Summary: This article provides a global assessment of illegal marine turtle exploitation, indicating that over 1.1 million marine turtles were exploited between 1990 and 2020. While there were fluctuations in the exploitation levels over the three decades, there appears to be a decrease in illegal exploitation overall.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biology
Ilan M. Ruhr, Kayleigh A. R. Rose, William I. Sellers, Dane A. Crossley, Jonathan R. Codd
Summary: In this study, it was found that younger turtles in Chelydra serpentina flip over faster than older individuals, and they self-right with lower biomechanical costs. This may be due to the relatively longer neck of younger turtles and their faster and less costly self-righting, which help overcome the risks of inversion.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Zoology
Zane Wolf, George V. Lauder
Summary: Fish display a versatile array of swimming patterns and can switch between them. This study expands upon a previous robotic model to simulate various swimming patterns, similar to real fish. The results show that the model can achieve more realistic fish-like patterns and improve swimming efficiency by introducing slight co-activation to decrease lateral forces.
INTEGRATIVE AND COMPARATIVE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Weipang Chang, Melina E. Hale
Summary: Octopuses coordinate their arms through a nerve ring at the arms' base, in addition to brain-based sensorimotor integration and control. When one arm is mechanically stimulated, neural activity is generated in the nerve ring and in other arms, while the activity in the nerve ring decreases with distance from the stimulated arm. Various spiking patterns of neural activity occur in the axial nerve cords and the nerve ring.
Article
Biology
Michelle Graham, John J. Socha
Summary: In arboreal habitats, dynamic movements play a crucial role in gap-crossing behaviors of arboreal animals. Research has shown that flying snakes are able to use jumping behaviors to cross larger distances, instead of employing the cantilever crawl used by most snakes. This dynamic jumping behavior allows flying snakes to access greater resources in the arboreal environment.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Medicine, General & Internal
Frederic Chantraine, Celine Schreiber, Jose Alexandre Carvalho Pereira, Jerome Kaps, Frederic Dierick
Summary: This study proposed the use of the k-means method to classify the severity of unilateral stiff-knee gait (SKG) in adult patients after stroke. By analyzing knee kinematic parameters, three clusters of SKG and a three-level severity classification were identified. This classification system is important for clinicians and researchers in optimizing treatment choices and clinical trial eligibility.
JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MEDICINE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
David Labonte
Summary: Muscle contraction determines animal movement and is limited by the characteristic dimensionless number of effective inertia, F. Physiologically similar musculoskeletal systems possess equal fractions of muscle's maximum performance. An optimal musculoskeletal anatomy with F close to unity enables maximum work and power delivery. External forces introduce parasitic losses and challenge traditional skeletal force-velocity trade-offs. F systematically varies under isogeometric transformations, providing insights into animal locomotor performance.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Minseok Gwon, Dongjin Kim, Baekgyeom Kim, Seungyong Han, Daeshik Kang, Je-Sung Koh
Summary: Inspired by semi-aquatic animals, the authors investigate the scale dependency of water jumping performance and verify it through experiments with robots. They find that momentum transfer from the water surface is strongly related to the dynamical scale and morphology of jumping animals. A simplified analytical model is used to calculate the maximum momentum transfer and identifies an intermediate dynamical scale region that is highly disadvantageous for jumping on water. The study also presents a large water-jumping robot that achieves the highest reported take-off speed using drag-based propulsion.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Physics, Multidisciplinary
Moira Pryhoda, Karl M. Newell, Cassie Wilson, Gareth Irwin
Summary: This study investigated the stability of center of mass (CM) in upright and hand stances, and the impact of joint angle and position on stability. It was found that joint angle and sway motion had higher dispersion compared to CM and center of pressure (CP). The variability of neck motion was significantly higher in upright stance.
Review
Neurosciences
Hiroshi Kohsaka
Summary: The motions of animal behavior are the result of the interaction between neural circuits and mechanical body parts. Research on the locomotor system of fly larvae can reveal the underlying mechanisms of animal behavior and establish a practical framework for studying the behavior of other species.
FRONTIERS IN NEURAL CIRCUITS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Riddhi Das, Saravana Prashanth Murali Babu, Francesco Visentin, Stefano Palagi, Barbara Mazzolai
Summary: This study presents the design and development of a modular soft robot based on a peristaltic soft actuator (PSA). The PSA can switch between two active configurations by altering the input pressure, generating both axial penetration and radial anchorage forces through bidirectional deformation. The performance of the PSA depends on the fluid confined in the elastomer chamber, allowing the robot to perform peristaltic locomotion in different media. The study also investigates the role of friction through the attachment of passive scales resembling earthworm setae to the ventral side of the robot.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2023)
