Croonian lecture—Aspects of animal locomotion

Abstract

The available facts establish 4 main points concerning the mechanism of locomotory coordination: To a considerable degree it is independent of the higher nervous centers, although in vertebrate animals the integrity of the medulla oblongata and, sometimes, its contiguous regions, is essential for a display of full locomotory activity. The type of locomotion displayed by an animal often varies with the pattern of peripheral stimulation to which it is exposed. Few, if any, animals display co-ordinated motion when their c. n. s. are completely isolated from those patterns of peripheral stimulation which reach them under conditions of normal progression. It is often possible to restrict the receipt of this peripheral stimulation to a comparatively small amt. of the total musculature taking part in subsequent locomotion. The response made by spinal (or comparable) preps. to appropriate patterns of peripheral stimuli seems to justify the view that each phase of a normal ambulatory rhythm is initiated and controlled by peripheral events.