Curve walking in crayfish

Curve walking of crayfish Astacus leptodactylus was investigated by exploiting their optomotor response. The animal walked while spatially fixed on a motor-driven treadmill and turning behaviour was induced by an optical stimulus, a pattern consisting of vertical stripes moving in a horizontal direction. In this open-loop situation, the crayfish maintains the same step frequency for the legs on both sides of the body for low and intermediate turning speeds, but increases the step amplitude of the outer legs 2, 3 and 4 by shifting the posterior extreme position (PEP) of these legs in a posterior direction and reduces the step amplitude of inner leg 5 by shifting the PEP of this leg in an anterior direction. Furthermore, the main movement direction of the legs can change relative to the body. This was observed for outer leg 5 and also, at higher turning speeds, for outer leg 2. As coordinating influences between contra- and ipsilateral legs were found directly to influence only the anterior extreme position of the legs, these results indicate that the mechanisms controlling curve walking may be different from those controlling normal leg coordination.