Multi-joint coordination during walking and foothold searching in the Blaberus cockroach. I. Kinematics and electromyograms

Abstract

Cockroaches were induced to walk or search for a foothold while they were tethered above a glass plate made slick with microtome oil. We combined kinematic analysis of leg joint movements with electromyographic (EMG) recordings from leg extensor muscles during tethered walking and searching to characterize these behaviors. The tethered preparation provides technical advantages for multi-joint kinematic and neural analysis. However, the behavioral relevance of the tethered preparation is an important issue. To address this issue, we evaluated the effects of tethering the animals by comparing kinematic parameters of tethered walking with similar data collected previously from cockroaches walking freely on a treadmill at the same speeds. No significant differences between tethered and treadmill walking were found for most joint kinematic parameters. In contrast, comparison of tethered walking and searching showed that the two behaviors can be distinguished by analysis of kinematics and electrical data. We combined analysis of joint kinematics and electromyograms to examine the change in multi-joint coordination during walking and searching. During searching, middle leg joints extended during swing rather than stance (i.e., walking) and the coordination of movements and extensor motor neuron activity at the coxa-trochanteral and femur tibia joints differed significantly during walking and searching. We also found that the pattern of myographic activity in the middle leg during searching was similar to that in the front legs during walking.