A somewhat neglected aspect of insect neurophysiology.

Keir Pearson began his influential 1972 paper on cockroach walking with the statement that “a somewhat neglected aspect of insect neurophysiology is the nervous control of walking”. He then proceeded to outline a series of experiments that, together with his earlier work (Pearson and Iles, 1970), helped to shape a very large body of subsequent research that has shown how the central nervous system and sensory signals act together to control limb movements. Almost 40 years later, his 1972 paper continues to be cited four or five times a year. The list of citing authors reads like a who’s who of motor control and neuroethology, and the 240 or so citations span topics as diverse as vertebrate spinal cord pattern generation (Grillner, 1974), motor deficits in patients with large-fibre sensory neuropathy (Sanes et al., 1984), artificial neural nets for controlling legged robots (Cruse et al., 1995), and motor memories in foraging wood ants (Lent et al., 2009). This diversity is testament to the fundamental nature of the questions addressed by Pearson’s experiments and to his clarity of expression, which makes his paper very accessible.