New publication in Biological Cybernetics

We are pleased to share that the article “Encoding of movement primitives and body posture through distributed proprioception in walking and climbing insects” has been published in Biological Cybernetics.

The paper, authored by Thomas van der Veen, Volker Dürr, and Elisabetta Chicca, investigates how insects, despite lacking a dedicated vestibular system, could derive higher-level information about limb movement and whole-body posture by integrating distributed, local proprioceptive signals across the legs.

Building on a preceding companion model of local phasic-tonic encoding and first-order interneuron readouts, the authors extend the framework with a multi-layer spiking neural network. Second-order interneurons act as coincidence detectors, combining two or three leg-local position/velocity signals to encode movement primitives that align with step-cycle phases and transitions (e.g., lift-off). At a higher level, third-order readout neurons integrate information across all six legs to signal climbing and to estimate body pitch relative to the substrate, validated against annotated whole-body kinematics from unrestrained stick insect walking and stair climbing.

Overall, the results demonstrate that relatively simple combinations of distributed proprioceptive cues can be sufficient to encode higher-order movement information, supporting the idea that insects can build functional internal representations of locomotor state and posture from local sensory arrays.

Encoding of movement primitives and body posture through distributed proprioception in walking and climbing insects
Biological Cybernetics (Published 9 January 2026)