Decerebrate Cat walks and exhibits multiple gait patterns

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Cites icegreentea · 2014-10 · on “Our Understanding of Giraffes Does Not Measure Up”

Remember that a lot of 'standard' movements aren't fully controlled from the brain. Instead, the brain generators modulating signals to structures/systems lower in the spinal - ie increasing or decreasing your rate of walking. There's lots of evidence of these 'Central Pattern Generators' being located below the brain - which would reduce signal lag. For a somewhat disturbing example of this, here's a 'decerberated' cat on a treadmill. [this video] That said, the fact that any vertebrae (even our selves) are able to move and react so well is pretty amazing, given that our own neural lag is in the ~100ms range. It's really a testament to the robustment of the multi-tier control that we (animals in

Cites ItsMe000001 · 2018-04 · on “A Feasible Approach to Human Stasis for Long-Duration Deep Space Missions”

Uhm... all kinds of animals actually, but you need ethics approval if you use vertebrates. And I don't think you will find non-crazy volunteers for the invasive experiments... I took neuroscience courses - and a lot of what I learned was made possible by such experiments, so I'm not against them. However, the cost for the animals that get selected is high. You can't do that with humans, only the most benign experiments. But many experiments involves cutting open the head. inserting electrodes at the very least, sometimes you want to see the brain too - there are things you can do, like two-photon microscopy (example: [LINK] -- you have to expose the brain), or inject dyes, and other options)

Cites 1_over_n · 2018-09 · on “Neuromodulation of spinal networks enables stepping after complete paraplegia”

the decerebrate cat experiments illustrate this perfectly (although perhaps people dont like to talk about it because of the ethics of the experiments) [this video]

Cites jampekka · 2023-12 · on “Tesla FSD Timeline”

If the babies don't see objects, they don't "develop" object permanence. Yeah, here we can summon the "use it or use it" copeout, but then the nativist account becomes unfalsifiable. Being able to crawl within minutes (and even somewhat run within hours as horses do) is mostly due to anatomy and "reflex pathways". E.g. a cat can walk without brains [1], as can famosly headless chicken. Human babies too have these kinds of reflexes but they are "abandoned" well before the baby learns to walk. [1] [this video]