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T W Calvert

Publications and source records attributed to T W Calvert.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1985

Model of a pattern generator for locomotion in mammals.

This paper presents an analytic model of a limb pattern generator that can produce complex muscle activation patterns such as those shown to control the limbs of cats. The limb pattern generator is considered to have a tonic input and six outputs; this provides for flexion and extension of representative muscles for each of the three joints of the limb. The pattern generator functions as a community of labile synthesized relaxation oscillators that alters its output in response to input. This model was studied using electromyographic data from an experiment conducted on an acute postmammillary cat preparation. The results suggest that the limb pattern generator can be represented as three subsystems: an oscillator that produces the fundamental frequency of the output in response to the tonic signal, nonlinear shaping functions that mold the oscillator output into the basic complex pattern, and appropriate weighting functions that generate the muscle activity pattern from basic waveforms. The model can account for speed changes in locomotion with a relatively smooth change of system parameters. The pattern generator model is generative, amenable to simulation studies, and can be realized by a neural network.

Animals↗
PubMed1973

Distribution coding in the visual pathway.

Although a variety of types of spike interval histograms have been reported, little attention has been given to the spike interval distribution as a neural code and to how different distributions are transmitted through neural networks. In this paper we present experimental results showing spike interval histograms recorded from retinal ganglion cells of the cat. These results exhibit a clear correlation between spike interval distribution and stimulus condition at the retinal ganglion cell level. The averaged mean rates of the cells studied were nearly the same in light as in darkness whereas the spike interval histograms were much more regular in light than in darkness. We present theoretical models which illustrate how such a distribution coding at the retinal level could be "interpreted" or recorded at some higher level of the nervous system such as the lateral geniculate nucleus. Interpretation is an essential requirement of a neural code which has often been overlooked in modeling studies. Analytical expressions are derived describing the role of distribution coding in determining the transfer characteristics of a simple interaction model and of a lateral inhibition network. Our work suggests that distribution coding might be interpreted by simply interconnected neural networks such as relay cell networks, in general, and the primary thalamic sensory nuclei in particular.

Animals↗