Sensory feedback induced by front-leg stepping entrains the activity of central pattern generators in caudal segments of the stick insect walking system.

Legged locomotion results from a combination of central pattern generating network (CPG) activity and intralimb and interlimb sensory feedback. Data on the neural basis of interlimb coordination are very limited. We investigated here the influence of stepping in one leg on the activities of neighboring-leg thorax-coxa (TC) joint CPGs in the stick insect (Carausius morosus). We used a new approach combining single-leg stepping with pharmacological activation of segmental CPGs, sensory stimulation, and additional stepping legs. Stepping of a single front leg could activate the ipsilateral mesothoracic TC CPG. Activation of the metathoracic TC CPG required that both ipsilateral front and middle legs were present and that one of these legs was stepping. Unlike the situation in real walking, ipsilateral mesothoracic and metathoracic TC CPGs activated by front-leg stepping fired in phase with the front-leg stepping. Local (intralimb) sensory feedback from load sensors could override this intersegmental influence of front-leg stepping, shifting retractor motoneuron activity relative to the front-leg step cycle and thereby uncoupling them from front-leg stepping. These data suggest that front-leg stepping in isolation would result in in-phase activity of all ipsilateral legs, and functional stepping gaits (in which the three ipsilateral legs do not step in synchrony) emerge because of local load sensory feedback overriding this in-phase influence.