Centipedes and millipedes coordinate their many legs through metachronal waves of stepping, generated by local neural circuits along the body rather than by individually controlling each leg from the brain.

Is it true that Centipedes and millipedes coordinate their many legs through metachronal waves of stepping, generated by local neural circuits along the body rather than by individually controlling each leg from the brain?

Unclear. The retrieved items partially support the claim: peer-reviewed modeling work describes direct- and retrograde-wave gaits in millipedes and centipedes and shows such gaits emerge from decentralized local oscillators with sensory feedback, and another paper notes distributed neural control circuits underlie invertebrate interlimb coordination. None of the items directly demonstrates metachronal waves generated by local neural circuits in these animals rather than brain control.

Verdict: PARTIAL LEAN · 4 sources for, 0 against · Last checked 3 Oct 2026

The private library was unavailable for some searches in this check. Missing library results are not evidence against the claim.

Generation of Direct-, Retrograde-, and Source-Wave Gaits in Multi-Legged Locomotion in a Decentralized Manner via Embodied Sensorimotor Interaction. (n.d.). cir.nii.ac.jp. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2021.706064

位相リセットが多足歩行に及ぼす影響のシンプルモデルを用いた解析. (n.d.). cir.nii.ac.jp. https://doi.org/10.9746/sicetr.52.639

A, M. & P, M. (2020). General Distributed Neural Control and Sensory Adaptation for Self-Organized Locomotion and Fast Adaptation to Damage of Walking Robots.. doi.org. https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2020.00046

脚の負荷に応じた足並みを生成可能な多脚ロボットの実現に向けた一考察. (n.d.). cir.nii.ac.jp. https://doi.org/10.1299/jsmermd.2021.1p3-f07