A Model for the Aiming Phase of the Wiping Reflex

The spinal frog can remove a tactile stimulus from the body surface by coordinated movements of the limbs (Paton, 1846). This reaction, the wiping reflex (WR), is analogous to the scratch reflex in turtles and higher vertebrates (Valk-Fai and Crowe, 1978; Stein, 1983). Remarkable features of the WR such as the site-specificity, accuracy and variability have been noticed in early studies. Paton (1846) suggested that the spinal cord had the power of perception of the stimulus location during the WR. The point of view was later on supported by Pfluger (1853) who ascribed to the frog’s spinal cord rudimentary psychic properties. Sanders-Ezn (1867) focused his attention on the reflex variability that hampers the description and classification of WR movements. Classical and modern studies of the WR and the scratch reflex have recently been summarized by Stein (1983).

[1]  E. Pflüger.  Die sensorischen Functionen des Rückenmarks der Wirbelthiere nebst einer neuen Lehre über die Leitungsgesetze der Reflexionen , 2022 .

[2]  P. Viviani,et al.  32 Space-Time Invariance in Learned Motor Skills , 1980 .

[3]  E. Bizzi,et al.  Human arm trajectory formation. , 1982, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[4]  M. L. Shik,et al.  Neurophysiology of locomotor automatism. , 1976, Physiological reviews.

[5]  S. Grillner.  Control of Locomotion in Bipeds, Tetrapods, and Fish , 1981 .

[6]  V. Brooks.  The Cerebellum and Adaptive Tuning of Movements , 1984 .

[7]  P. N. Kugler,et al.  1 On the Concept of Coordinative Structures as Dissipative Structures: I. Theoretical Lines of Convergence* , 1980 .

[8]  J. Halbertsma.  The stride cycle of the cat: the modelling of locomotion by computerized analysis of automatic recordings. , 1983, Acta physiologica Scandinavica. Supplementum.

[9]  N. A. Bernshteĭn.  The co-ordination and regulation of movements , 1967 .

[10]  O. I. Fukson,et al.  [Biomechanical characteristics of the wiping reflex cycle]. , 1984, Biofizika.

[11]  Elliot Saltzman,et al.  Levels of sensorimotor representation , 1979 .

[12]  P. Stein.  The vertebrate scratch reflex. , 1983, Symposia of the Society for Experimental Biology.

[13]  O. I. Fukson,et al.  The spinal frog takes into account the scheme of its body during the wiping reflex. , 1980, Science.

[14]  A. Pellionisz,et al.  Brain modeling by tensor network theory and computer simulation. The cerebellum: Distributed processor for predictive coordination , 1979, Neuroscience.

[15]  S. Baglioni.  Die Hautreflexe der Amphibien (Frosch und Kröte) , 1913 .

[16]  A. Fuchs,et al.  Role of cat pontine burst neurons in generation of saccadic eye movements. , 1981, Journal of neurophysiology.