The study of limbs kinematics in different conditions and environments

• Main Author: CATAVITELLO, GIOVANNA
• Other Authors: LACQUANITI, FRANCESCO
• Format: Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata" 2014
• Subjects: Settore MED/26 - NEUROLOGIA; Canis lupus
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/2108/211245

Terrestrial animals are complex, high dimensional, dynamical systems. They have the ability to adapt the coordination of their limbs to move in different environments and at dierent speeds. With the purpose to get in depth into the basic motion mechanisms of animals, in this work the templates and the modular organization of their movements have been studied. This thesis is based on the results of three studies (published in PLoS-One and Esperimental Brain Research). In the text these are referred to as Study I, Study II, and Study III (Chapters 2, 3, 4, accordingly). The rst Chapter 1 introduces a general background necessary for the study and a presentation of the scope of the project. It summarizes available literature on the general organization of the motor systems, focusing on the spinal networks involved in mammalian locomotion and on the limbs motor control. The overall aim and the ow of the thesis are also presented. The specic literature and detailed discussion of the ndings in the context of kinematic and dynamic constraints of limb movement control will be also presented in each chapter separately. The Study I, Chapter 2, presents the study conducted on the modular control of canine limbs kinematics. It explores the framework of kinematic modules for understanding the dimensional complexity of dogs' motor control in locomotion under dierent environmental conditions and speeds. To this end, I studied the kinematic coordination laws of dierent gaits (walk, trot, gallop, and swim) of six dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and, in particular, the coordination between the segments that constitute each limbs. This study was conducted to see if the kinematics laws found in humans, hold also for dogs, in order to compare the quadrupedal canine locomotion with the human bipedal one. Furthermore, I've also veried that laws was maintained in both hindlimbs and forelimbs, despite their dierent musculoskeletal and functional organization. The Study II, Chapter 3, concerns examination of the inter-limb coupling ...