Self-organized Recovery of Coordinated Locomotion in Crickets Revealed by Prosthetic Limb Integration

Distributed sensorimotor interactions facilitate the coordination of multi-legged locomotion in insects without centralized control, yet the mechanisms that allow coordinated locomotion to re-emerge following limb loss remain poorly understood. Here, we systematically evaluate the effects of leg amputation and the integration of prosthetic legs on walking coordination in crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus). Spherical treadmill experiments revealed that leg amputation dis-rupts inter-leg phase coupling, decreases locomotor speed, and alters spatial foot placement in a state-dependent manner, indicating impaired load-mediated co-ordination. Prosthetic legs did not merely restore intact kinematics; instead, they selectively reinstated coherent temporal coordination and axis-specific spatial or-ganization. This structured recovery illustrates that re-introducing mechanically relevant sensory constraints is sufficient to re-engage distributed coordination networks, even in the absence of anatomical integrity. Our findings elucidate an embodied principle through which sensory-mechanical feedback facilitates the self-organization of resilient multi-legged locomotion in the context of morpho-logical interventions.