CNS control of the PNS-mediated gill withdrawal reflex and its habituation

1977 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 1252-1262 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Lukowiak

Removal of the branchial (Br) nerve input to the gill significantly reduced the latency and increased the amplitude of the gill withdrawal reflex evoked by siphon stimulation. Further, after Br removal repeated siphon stimulation which previously resulted in habituation now resulted in facilitation of the reflex. However, the synaptic input to gill motor neurons in the abdominal ganglion continued to decrement as before. In preparations without the peripheral nervous system (PNS), removal of Br did not produce similar results. The gill withdrawal reflex and its habituation are mediated by the PNS, but the CNS exerts facilitatory and suppressive control. Thus, changes in synaptic efficacy to gill motor neurons in the abdominal ganglion are not the ultimate cause of gill reflex habituation. Habituation is the result of adaptive neural processes which occur together in the abdominal ganglion, the PNS, and the peripheral terminations of the central motor pathways to the gill. Therefore, in any analysis of the underlying neural mechanisms of habituation all these loci must be included and taken into account.

1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 987-997 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Lukowiak

In older Aplysia, the central nervous system (CNS) (abdominal ganglion) exerts suppressive and facilitatory control over the peripheral nervous system (PNS) which initially mediates the gill withdrawal reflex and its subsequent habituation evoked by tactile stimulation of the siphon. In young animals, both the suppressive and facilitatory CNS control were found to be absent. In older animals, removal of branchial nerve (Br) input to the gill resulted in a significantly reduced reflex latency and, with ctenidial (Ct) and siphon (Sn) nerves intact, a significantly increased reflex amplitude and an inability of the reflex to habituate with repeated siphon stimulation. In young animals, removal of Br had no effect on reflex latency and with Ct and Sn intact, the reflex amplitude latency was not increased and the reflex habituated. Older animals can easily discriminate between different intensity stimuli applied to the siphon as evidenced by differences in reflex amplitude, rates of habituation, and evoked neural activity. On the other hand, young animals cannot discriminate well between different stimulus intensities. The lack of CNS control in young animals was found to be due to incompletely developed neural processes within the abdominal ganglion and not the PNS. The lack of CNS control in young Aplysia results in gill reflex behaviours being less adaptive in light of changing stimulus conditions, but may be of positive survival value in that the young will not habituate as easily. The fact that CNS control is present in older animals strengthens the idea that in any analysis of the underlying neural mechanisms of habituation the entire integrated CNS–PNS must be taken into account.


1979 ◽  
Vol 57 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-332 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Ruben ◽  
Ken Lukowiak

We have studied the effects of dopamine on the gill withdrawal reflex evoked by tactile siphon stimulation in the margine mollusc Aplysia. Physiological concentrations of dopamine (diluted in seawater) were perfused through the gill during siphon stimulation series. The amplitude of the reflex was potentiated by dopamine and habituation of the reflex was prevented. This occurred with no change in the activity evoked in central motor neurons. These results lead us to conclude that the dopaminergic motor neuron L9 is modulating habituation in the periphery and that the central nervous system facilitatory control of the peripheral nervous system may act via a dopaminergic pathway.


Author(s):  
Eduardo E. Benarroch ◽  
Jeremy K. Cutsforth-Gregory ◽  
Kelly D. Flemming

All bodily movements, including those of internal organs, are the result of muscle contraction, which is under neural control. The muscles of the limbs, trunk, neck, and eyes are derived from somites. The muscles involved in facial expression, mastication, phonation, and swallowing are derived from the branchial arches. Somatic and limbic motor pathways arising from the cerebral cortex and brainstem control the activity of the motor neurons innervating all these muscles. The motor system, like the sensory system, includes a complex network of structures and pathways at all levels of the nervous system. This network mediates many types of motor activity. An understanding of its organization and the integration of the motor system with the sensory system is necessary for accurate localization and diagnosis of neurologic disease.


1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 749-755 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff I. Goldberg ◽  
Ken Lukowiak

Habituation of the siphon withdrawal reflex (SWR) can be evoked by iterative tactile stimuli presented to one of several sites, including the siphon and gill. The SWR evoked at an arbitrary "test" site did not habituate when stimuli were presented at 20-min intervals. However, there was a large decrease in the reflex evoked at the test site when the trial was preceded by 10 repetitive stimuli (interstimuli interval = 30 s) presented to the opposite "habituation" site. Transfer of habituation occurred from gill to siphon stimulation sites, and vice versa. There was a concomitant decrease in the excitatory input evoked in the central siphon motor neurons LDS1 and LDS3. Moreover, transfer of habituation occurred after the abdominal ganglion (central nervous system) was removed. There was little change in the magnitude of the control responses or transfer of habituation after deganglionation. Since transfer of habituation between stimulation sites of the SWR was similar to that reported previously for the gill withdrawal reflex, it was suggested that a common mechanism may underlie the two behaviors.


1991 ◽  
Vol 156 (1) ◽  
pp. 315-334
Author(s):  
B. Dubuc ◽  
V. F. Castellucci

The rostral LE cluster (rLE) is a new set of mechanoreceptor neurons of the abdominal ganglion innervating the mantle area, the branchial cavity, the gill and the siphon of the marine mollusk Aplysia californica Cooper. We have compared the organization of rLE cell receptive fields with that of three other clusters of sensory neurons in the abdominal ganglion (LE, RE and RF) that we have reanalysed. There is extensive overlap of receptive fields from the four populations of sensory cells, and the most exposed areas of the mantle are the most densely innervated. The sensory threshold is similar for all groups. The action potentials of the LE, rLE and RE neurons are broadened by serotonin and the peptide SCPB and narrowed by dopamine and FMRFamide. The RF group does not show the same kind of sensitivity to these neuromodulators. The synaptic outputs of the LE and rLE neurons undergo similar synaptic depression and homosynaptic and heterosynaptic facilitation. We estimate that 100 mechanoreceptor neurons innervate the entire mantle and siphon skin, gill and branchial cavity of Aplysia. The degree of their convergence onto various interneurons and motor neurons mediating the gill- and siphon-withdrawal reflex and other reflexes is under investigation.


1983 ◽  
Vol 61 (7) ◽  
pp. 743-748 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Lukowiak ◽  
Lee Freedman

In Aplysia, the central nervous system and peripheral nervous system interact and form an integrated system that mediates adaptive gill withdrawal reflex behaviours evoked by tactile stimulation of the siphon. The central nervous system (CNS) exerts suppressive and facilitatory control over the peripheral nervous system (PNS) in the mediation of these behaviours. We found that the CNS's suppressive control over the PNS was increased significantly in animals engaged in sexual activity as either a male or female. In control animals, the evoked gill withdrawal reflex met a minimal response amplitide criterion, while in sexually active animals the reflex did not meet this criterion. At the neuronal level, the increased CNS suppressive control was manifested as a decrease in excitatory input to the central gill motor neurons.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Guldsmed Madsen ◽  
Jakob Appel Østergaard ◽  
Henning Andersen ◽  
Michael Pedersen

Aims/Hypothesis. The complications affecting the peripheral nervous system, associated with diabetes mellitus, have been the focus of considerable research. Comparably less research has focused upon the effect of diabetes upon the central nervous system. In this study, we investigate the effect of diabetes upon motor-neuron potentials evoked in the motor cortex of streptozotocin diabetic rats. Methods. In this study, we investigated the cortical-evoked motor-neuron potentials in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Cortical potentials were evoked using direct current stimulation to the motor cortex, and the resulting evoked potentials were recorded in the sciatic nerve. As voluntary movement consists of repeated activation of muscles, repeated stimulation trials were used to determine the effect of diabetes upon the animals’ ability to recuperate between stimulations. Results. Our findings showed that diabetes severely decreased the amplitude of cortical-evoked potentials and compromised the recuperation of motor neurons between activation. Conclusion/Interpretation. The reduced amplitude and weakened recuperation of diabetic motor neurons potentially may contribute to impaired transmission in motor pathways and thereby motor dysfunction.


Cells ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (7) ◽  
pp. 1678
Author(s):  
Liriopé Toupenet Marchesi ◽  
Marion Leblanc ◽  
Giovanni Stevanin

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) refers to a group of neurological disorders involving the degeneration of motor neurons. Due to their clinical and genetic heterogeneity, finding common effective therapeutics is difficult. Therefore, a better understanding of the common pathological mechanisms is necessary. The role of several HSP genes/proteins is linked to the endolysosomal and autophagic pathways, suggesting a functional convergence. Furthermore, impairment of these pathways is particularly interesting since it has been linked to other neurodegenerative diseases, which would suggest that the nervous system is particularly sensitive to the disruption of the endolysosomal and autophagic systems. In this review, we will summarize the involvement of HSP proteins in the endolysosomal and autophagic pathways in order to clarify their functioning and decipher some of the pathological mechanisms leading to HSP.


Development ◽  
1990 ◽  
Vol 109 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Maden ◽  
D.E. Ong ◽  
F. Chytil

We have analysed the distribution of cellular retinol-binding protein (CRBP) and cellular retinoic acid-binding protein (CRABP) in the day 8.5-day 12 mouse and rat embryo. CRBP is localised in the heart, gut epithelium, notochord, otic vesicle, sympathetic ganglia, lamina terminalis of the brain, and, most strikingly, in a ventral stripe across the developing neural tube in the future motor neuron region. This immunoreactivity remains in motor neurons and, at later stages, motor axons are labelled in contrast to unlabelled sensory axons. CRABP is localised to the neural crest cells, which are particularly noticeable streaming into the branchial arches. At later stages, neural crest derivatives such as Schwann cells, cells in the gut wall and sympathetic ganglia are immunoreactive. An additional area of CRABP-positive cells are neuroblasts in the mantle layer of the neural tube, which subsequently appear to be the axons and cell bodies of the commissural system. Since retinol and retinoic acid are the endogenous ligands for these binding proteins, we propose that retinoids may play a role in the development and differentiation of the mammalian nervous system and may interact with certain homoeobox genes whose transcripts have also been localised within the nervous system.


1993 ◽  
Vol 70 (5) ◽  
pp. 1777-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. White ◽  
I. Ziv ◽  
L. J. Cleary ◽  
D. A. Baxter ◽  
J. H. Byrne

1. The contributions of monosynaptic and polysynaptic circuitry to the tail-withdrawal reflex in the marine mollusk Aplysia californica were assessed by the use of physiologically based neural network models. Effects of monosynaptic circuitry were examined by the use of a two-layer network model with four sensory neurons in the input layer and one motor neuron in the output layer. Results of these simulations indicated that the monosynaptic circuit could not account fully for long-duration responses of tail motor neurons elicited by tail stimulation. 2. A three-layer network model was constructed by interposing a layer of two excitatory interneurons between the input and output layers of the two-layer network model. These interneurons had properties mimicking those of the recently described interneuron LP117, receiving excitatory input from pleural sensory neurons and evoking a biphasic excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) in pedal motor neurons (Cleary and Byrne 1993). The three-layer model could account for long-duration responses in motor neurons. 3. Sensory neurons are a known site of plasticity in Aplysia. Synaptic plasticity was incorporated into the three-layer model by altering the magnitudes of conductance changes evoked in motor neurons and interneurons by presynaptic sensory neurons. In these simulations the excitatory interneurons converted an amplitude-coded input into an amplitude- and duration-coded output, allowing the three-layer network to support a large range of output amplitudes and durations. 4. Synaptic plasticity at more than one locus modified dramatically the input-output relationship of the three-layer network model. This feature gave the model redundancy in its plastic properties and points to the possibility of distributed memory in the circuitry mediating withdrawal reflexes in Aplysia. Multiple sites of control over the response of the network would likely allow a more diverse repertoire of responses.


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