Ecdysis: neural orchestration of a complex behavioral performance.
Cricket ecdysis (molting) requires continuously changing output in hundreds of motoneurons over a period of several hours, and exhibits considerable plasticity. Despite this complexity, analysis of identified motor units reveals a highly organized three-layered infrastructure, and indicates that the "small system" paradigm currently applied to simple invertebrate motor programs can be extended to much more sophisticated behavioral performances.
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009987:Orthoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors