Sasha Zill, Ph.D.
Professor of Anatomy and Pathology
Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine
Marshall University
Huntington, WV
Contact Information
E-mail: sensillum@aol.com
zill@marshall.edu
Office phone: (304) 696-7384
Fax: (304) 696-7290
Personal webpage: http://medix.marshall.edu/~zill/
Office Address
Medical Education Building 216
1542 Spring Valley Drive
Huntington, WV 25704
Research Overview
Our research is a labor of love that has as its context understanding how the nervous system generates motor behaviors. It can be argued that nervous systems evolved in animals to allow for sensible decisions to be made in generating and adapting motor actions. Sense organs provide the information needed for making these modifications. The animals we have studied are arthropod invertebrates, and most work in the lab is done on sense organs of insects that detect mechanical forces (mechanoreceptors). Cogent reasons for studying insects are that their nervous systems have fewer neurons and their sense organs are individually identifiable. Experiments can be performed on these animals that are difficult or impossible to do in vertebrates. Our results are relevant to problems in motor control and Biorobotics. We have also studied these questions using engineering methods (Finite Element Analysis - see http://biorobots.cwru.edu/Projects/modeling/finiteelementmodeling.htm.) However, the actual impetus for our studies is that insect behaviors are fascinating and richly complex. They are also constructed with an economy of design that reflects their remarkable adaptive success and longevity. Our research is further described on our webpages (see http://users.marshall.edu/~zill/index). The specific projects we are currently pursuing are described in Projects and our Publications are listed and some are available for download. We also have a number of Video sequences available for study or perusal, many of which have audio channels with recordings of sensory or motor activities during the behaviors. We have also posted a page related to Issues in Medical Education and teaching Basic Science/Neurobiology as a forum for ideas and discussion.
Recent Publications
Zill, S, Büschges, A, Schmitz, J (2011) Encoding of force increases and decreases by tibial campaniform sensilla in the stick insect, Carausius morosus. J Comp Physiol A 197:851-867.
Zill SN (2010) Invertebrate neurobiology: role of the insect brain in walking. Current Biology 2-: 438-440.
Zill SN, Keller BR, Chaudhry S, Duke ER, Neff D, Quinn R, Flannigan C (2010) Detecting substrate engagement: responses of tarsal campaniform sensilla in cockroaches. J Comp Physiol A 196:407-420.
Zill SN, Keller BR, Duke ER (2009) Sensory signals of unloading in one leg follow stance onset in another leg: Transfer of load and emergent coordination in cockroach walking. J Neurophysiol 101:2297-2304.
Zill SN, Keller BR (2009) Neurobiology: Reconstructing the neural control of leg coordination. Current Biology 19: 371-373.
Zill SN, Keller BR (2008) Neurobiology: Venom of wasps and initiation of movements. Current Biology 18: 525-527.
Zill SN (2007) Invertebrate neurobiology: sensory processing in reverse for backward walking. Current Biology 17: R462-464.
Keller BR, Duke EF, Amer AS, Zill SN (2007) Tuning posture to body load: decreases in load produce discrete sensory signals in the legs of freely standing cockroaches. J Comp Physiol A 193:881-891
Quimby L, Amer A and Zill, SN (2006) Common motor mechanisms support body weight in serially homologous legs of cockroaches in posture and locomotion. J Comp Physiol A 192:247-266
Kaliyamoorthy S, Zill SN, Quinn RD (2005) Force sensors in hexapod locomotion. Int J Robotics Res 24: 563-574
Zill S, Schmitz J, Büschges A (2004) Load sensing and control of posture and locomotion. Arthropod Struct and Dev 33:273-286 (Special Issue: Arthropod Locomotion Systems: from Biological Materials and Systems to Robotics, RE Ritzmann, SN Gorb and RD Quinn, eds.)
Laboratory personnel
Sumaiya Chaudhry