2010.01.20 - Nichols - Brown on CPGs

    • Graham Brown studied central pattern generators originating from the spinal cord
      • Was a student of Sherrington
      • Pretty much ignored until the 1960s
    • Reflex arc is not as simplistic as earlier postulated, since sensory information converges and diverges not simply having a simple input-ouput.
    • Earlier papers showed that after transaction of spinal cord the cat was still able to walk
      • Sudden transaction produced locomotion even under anaesthesia even though electrical stimulation of the peripheral nerve didn't show any movement
    • Suggested that there were two half-centers that reciprocally inhibited each other and that one of the half-centers was weaker to allow for the pattern to initiate.
    • He says that reflexes are an exaggeration of the rhythmic behavior and sensory feedback was only to preserve the rhythmic movement