Full, R.J.: Bestowing biological inspiration and getting novel insight from engineering and entertainment. Discoveries and principles in biology can provide inspiration for design in robotics, animatronics, animation and architecture. Unique materials and structures, remarkable functional relationships and the spectacularly effective performance found in natural technologies provide a wealth of ideas. Yet, blind, direct copying of […]

HALLETT, M.: Anatomical Principles of Reconstructing Extinct Organisms and Their Uses in Entertainment Art Dinosaurs and other extinct organism are rarely known from anatomical systems other than the skeletal system. Nonetheless, a detailed interpretation of muscular structure is prerequisite to responsible reconstructions. Detailed muscular reconstructions take into account bony landmarks of muscular attachment, but for […]

NORTHCUTT,, R.G.: What Do We Want to Know About Vertebrate Brain Evolution? Four major questions can be asked about how vertebrate brains evolve: 1) What major changes have occurred in neural organization and function? 2) When did these changes occur? 3) By what mechanisms did these changes occur? 4) Why did these changes occur? Comparative […]

EDWARDS, D.H.; KRASNE, F.B.: Modulation of crayfish escape reflexes II. Neuroethology of serotonergic modulation during dominance hierarchy formation. Analysis of escape behavior during the formation of dominance hierarchies shows that GF escape can be either facilitated or inhibited, depending on the stage of development of a social order and on the status of the animal. […]

KRASNE, F.B. ; EDWARDS, D.H.: Modulation of crayfish escape reflexes I. Neural circuitry of escape and modulatory systems The neural circuitry that mediates escape behavior in crayfish constitutes one of the best understood behavioral circuits in the animal kingdom. Escape is composed of two major types, stereotyped escape reflexes mediated by neurons with giant axons […]

CAREW, T.J.*; SHERFF, C.M.: Mechanistic analysis of multiple memory phases in Aplysia In animals ranging from humans to honeybees memories exist in different temporal phases. One system that has been particularly useful for studying the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying different memory phases is the siphon and tail withdrawal reflex of Aplysia. This reflex exhibits […]

SHERFF, C.M.*; CAREW, T.J.: Mechanistic analysis of multiple memory phases in Aplysia II: Long-term memory Two different patterns of 5HT exposure induce different forms of long-term facilitation (LTF, >24h) at sensorimotor synapses in Aplysia. Five spaced 5HT pulses (5x5HT) to both the presynaptic soma and the synapse induces LTF that is independent of postsynaptic protein […]

JOSEPHSON, Robert K.; SYME, Douglas A.: How to build fast muscles. II. Asynchronous muscle–a design breakthrough Some but not all flight and sound-producing muscles in insects contract in an oscillatory manner if they are activated by neural input and attached to a mechanically-resonant load. The frequency of the oscillations is the resonant frequency of the […]

SYME, DA*; JOSEPHSON, RK: How to Build Fast Muscles I. Synchronous Muscle. Skeletal muscles throughout the animal kingdom are turned on by neuron action potentials, resulting in muscle fiber depolarization that triggers the release of intracellular calcium. Calcium activates contractile filaments and allows interaction between myosin cross bridges and actin filaments. Relaxation is brought about […]

KRISTAN, W.B.: How the leech nervous system chooses among behaviors. When presented with conflicting mechanical stimuli, leeches typically produce distinct responses, not combinations of responses. For instance, touching the back end of a leech normally elicits swimming, whereas touching the front end reliably elicits shortening. Presented together, these stimuli always elicit shortening. In fact, shortening […]