Animals have multiple neurological levels of locomotive control, in vertebrates these can range from the spinal cord and cerebellum to the motor cortex in the upper levels of the brain. The multilevel synthetic nervous system controller presented in this paper was developed to investigate how these systems may be structured. This controller is shown to allow a rat hindlimb to express animal-like behaviors in response to its environment, adjusting its gait and stepping over a perceived obstacle after approaching it. This was achieved by organizing simulated neurons into a higher level controller inspired by the motor cortex. In mammals, the motor cortex influences the behavior of the lower level circuits such as those in the spinal cord, allowing the animal to adapt its environment. The network outlined in this paper shows a proof of concept for a synthetic nervous system with higher level adjustments of a lower level system to adapt legged gaits.