Linnea van Griethuijsen

MSc Biology (Animal Biology),
Wageningen University, the Netherlands 1999-2006

PhD student at Tufts Biology Department (Trimmer Lab) 2006-

Office:
200 Boston Ave. Ste 2600

Address:
Department of Biology
Tufts University
165 Packard Avenue,
Medford, MA 02155
USA

Email: Contact Linnea
Please feel free to contact me with comments or questions!
Read more about my research on my website: DutchNeuroethologist

Research interests
I am interested in animal locomotion and how locomotion in different situations is controlled through the nervous system. I study locomotion in Manduca sexta caterpillars. Caterpillars are fascinating in terms of locomotion; they use legs but are softbodied, so many of the vertebrate and insect ‘locomotion rules’ do not apply to them. Furthermore, their mechanics are very differently from hydrostats such as worms. Many aspects of Manduca’s nervous system have been studied extensively, making it a suitable model species to look at locomotion and the use of sensory feedback.

I am currently looking at the patterns of muscle activation during locomotion using microelectrodes with multiple recording sites (developed by Cinzia Metallo).

To give you an idea of how our model species gets around: here is a close up video of Manduca crawling over an obstacle.

Video

Publications

Simon, M.A., Woods,W.A. Jr., Serebrenik, Y.V., Simon, S.M., van Griethuijsen, L.I., Socha, J.J., Lee, W.K., Trimmer, B.A. (2010) Visceral-locomotory pistoning in crawling caterpillars. Curr. Biol., 20, 1458-1463

van Griethuijsen, L. I. and Trimmer, B. A. (2010) Caterpillar crawling over irregular terrain: anticipation and local sensing. J. Comp. Physiol. A., 196, 397-406

van Griethuijsen, L. I. and Trimmer, B. A. (2009). Kinematics of Horizontal and Vertical Caterpillar Crawling. J. Exp. Biol. 212, 1455. (open access, to download the article, click here)

From my rotation in the Romero lab, Biology Department, Tufts University:
DesRochers, D. W., Reed, J. M., Awerman, J., Kluge, J. A., Wilkinson, J., van Griethuijsen, L. I., Aman, J. and Romero, L. M. (2009). Exogenous and Endogenous Corticosterone Alter Feather Quality. Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Part A 152, 46-52.

From MSc thesis work at Lund University, Sweden:
Hedenström, A., Griethuijsen, L. v., Rosén, M. and Spedding, G. R. (2006). Vortex Wakes of Birds: Recent Developments using Digital Particle Image Velocimetry in a Wind Tunnel. Animal Biology 56, 535-549.

Awards
2008 GWIS Alpha Omega Travel Award
VSB beurs, Netherlands 2006

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