PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Stern, Peter
TI  - Dance, Turtle, Dance
AID  - 10.1126/stke.3702007tw32
DP  - 2007 Jan 23
TA  - Science's STKE
PG  - tw32--tw32
VI  - 2007
IP  - 370
4099  - http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2007/370/tw32.short
4100  - http://stke.sciencemag.org/content/2007/370/tw32.full
SO  - Sci. STKE2007 Jan 23; 2007
AB  - The basic spinal network mechanisms underlying limb movements are still not fully understood. Investigating spinal cord preparations from adult turtles, Berg et al. describe how spinal networks operate during motor pattern generation. Balanced increases in synaptic excitation and inhibition operate in spinal motor neurons to produce rhythmic bursts of action potentials that are stochastic in nature. This activity contrasts strongly with the classical notion that antiphasic inhibition and excitation produces rhythmic activity in oscillatory spinal networks (see Kristan for commentary). R. W. Berg, A. Alaburda, J. Hounsgaard, Balanced inhibition and excitation drive spike activity in spinal half-centers. Science 315, 390-393 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text] W. B. Kristan, A push-me pull-you neural design. Science 315, 339-340 (2007). [Summary] [Full Text]