Integrative neuromechanics of crawling in D. melanogaster larvae
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Abstract
Locomotion in an organism is a consequence of the coupled interaction between brain,
body and environment. Motivated by qualitative observations and quantitative perturbations of
crawling in Drosophila melanogaster larvae, we construct a minimal integrative mathematical model
for its locomotion. Our model couples the excitation-inhibition circuits in the nervous system to
force production in the muscles and body movement in a frictional environment, thence linking
neural dynamics to body mechanics via sensory feedback in a heterogeneous environment. Our
results explain the basic observed phenomenology of crawling with and without proprioception,
and elucidate the stabilizing role that proprioception plays in producing a robust crawling
phenotype in the presence of biological perturbations. More generally, our approach allows us to
make testable predictions on the effect of changing body-environment interactions on crawling,
and serves as a step in the development of hierarchical models linking cellular processes to
behavior.