Excitation and Inhibition of the Reflex Eye Withdrawal of The Crab Carcinus

1967 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-485
Author(s):  
D. C. SANDEMAN

1. Damage to the statocysts or section of the oesophageal connectives of Carcinus causes repeated ‘spontaneous’ eye withdrawals or ‘blinking’ on the damaged side. 2. When the eyes and brain are isolated from the body, repetitive blinking persists and concomitant bursts of large impulses appear in a single motor axon in the optic tract. The length of these bursts varies from 80 to 180 impulses and the interburst intervals from 5 to 60 sec. There is no obvious correlation between burst length and interburst interval. 3. The bursts are inhibited by stimulating the inside half of the ipsilateral oesophageal connective or initiated by stimulation of the oculomotor and tegumentary nerves. If stimulated with a continuous train of pulses these pathways also cause an increase or decrease in the interburst intervals. 4. The actively spiking portion of the eye-withdrawal motor neuron extends into the brain at least as far as the tegumentary/antennary neuropile. Here it is particularly sensitive to cathodal stimulation, yielding trains of spikes to maintained d.c. stimulation. This point is considered to be near the spike initiating locus for the bursts.

1980 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-160
Author(s):  
D. H. Bauer ◽  
L. S. Demski

A pattern of dark vertical bands is a characteristic agonistic display in the green sunfish, Lepomis cyanellus and the bluegill, L. macrochirus. The rapidity with which the display can appear and disappear indicates that it is neurally controlled. Electrical stimulation of the brain was carried out in anaesthetized green sunfish and bluegills to map those regions from which this colour change can be elicited. Banding was evoked by stimulation of sites near the midline in the preoptic area, ventral thalamic-dorsal hypothalmic transition zone, the midbrain tegmentum (just dorsal to the nucleus prerotundus pars medialis), in and near the torus semicricularis, in the basal midbrain (region of the crossing tectobulbar tracts), and in the rostral basomedial medulla. A ‘transition’ zone was located basally in the middle medulla, caudal to which only paling was evoked. Areas found to be negative for evoked banding included the telencephalic lobe, the inferior lobe of the hypothalamus, the optic tract, the optic tectum, the body and valvula of the cerebellum and the caudal medulla. It is postulated that the vertical banding pattern is made up of a separate, selectively controlled system of dermal melanophores. The possible neural mechanisms controlling banding are discussed.


1889 ◽  
Vol 35 (149) ◽  
pp. 23-44 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Warner

(1) Movement in mau has long been a subject of profitable study. Visible movement in the body is produced by muscular contraction following upon stimulation of the muscles by efferent currents passing from the central nerve-system. Modern physiological experiments have demonstrated that when a special brain-area discharges nerve-currents, these are followed by certain visible movements or contraction of certain muscles corresponding. So exact are such reactions, as obtained by experiment upon the brain-areas, that movements similar to those produced by experimental excitation of a certain brain-area may be taken as evidence of action in that area, or as commencing in discharge from that area (see Reinforcement of Movements, 35; Compound Series of Movements, 34).


1950 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. G. Wiersma ◽  
R. S. Turner

It has been shown that stimulation of synapses of the giant motor fibers of the third roots of Cambarus clarkii can block transmission at other synapses located on the same fiber. Peripherally located synapses block most synapses which are more centrally located. The reverse is true in a small number of cases. Possible reasons for this difference are discussed. It was further found that the two medial giant fibers in fresh, carefully dissected, preparations show a functional connection in the brain. It is probable that, under natural conditions, both medial giant fibers are always active at the same time.


1923 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. R. Moore

Coordinated swimming movements in Yungia are not dependent upon the presence of the brain. The neuromuscular mechanism necessary for spontaneous movement and swimming is complete in the body of the animal apart from the brain. Normally this mechanism is set in motion by sensory stimulation arriving by way of the brain. The latter is a region of low threshold and acts as an amplifier by sending the impulses into a great number of channels. When the head is cut off these connections with the sensorium are broken, consequently peripheral stimulation does not have its usual effect. If, however, the motor nerves are stimulated directly as by mechanical stimulation of the median anterior region, then swimming movements result. Also if the threshold of the entire nervous mechanism is lowered by phenol or by an increase in the ion ratios See PDF for Equation and See PDF for Equation then again peripheral stimulation throws the neuromuscular mechanism into activity and swimming movements result.


1938 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-370
Author(s):  
URSULA WYKES

1. In common with certain other teleosts and lacertilians, eyeless Amiurus nebulosus and Fundulus heteroclitus show a pigmentary response to changes in intensity of illumination. The melanophores contract in the darkness and expand in bright light. The control of this photic response was investigated in Amiurus. 2. The contraction in darkness was not obtained in areas denervated by section of spinal nerves nor in the posterior part of the body after section of the cord. The response is therefore under the control of nervous reflexes passing through the brain. A similar melanophore contraction can be obtained by electrical stimulation of the cord at extremely low frequencies. 3. The response remained in pinealectomized animals. Photoreceptors may possibly be located in the skin or the wall of the diencephalon may be sensitive to light. 4. After hypophysectomy the response continues but the degree of melanophore expansion in bright light is diminished. The expanding hormone of the pituitary is therefore important in that it augments a melanophore response which is under nervous control.


1959 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. H. SATCHELL

1. Inflation of the pharynx of a dogfish causes an inhibition of respiration manifested as a reduction in rate and amplitude. 2. Tetanic stimulation of the central end of a cut branchial nerve also inhibits respiration. 3. These inhibitory responses differ in their greater regularity and duration from the transient inhibition arising from stimulation elsewhere in the body. 4. Both normal respiration and inflation cause the discharge of receptors whose impulses pass up the vagus nerve. The pattern of firing of these receptors during an inflation corresponds to the pattern, of inhibition. 5. Brief inflations are more effective in securing inhibition if they arrive at a time when the receptors are not being caused to fire by a normal inspiration. 6. Cutting the branchial branches of the IXth and Xth nerves eliminates the pause between successive respirations and increases the respiratory rate. 7. These pauses can be made to reappear by periodically stimulating the central end of a cut branchial nerve. 8. Section of the brain between the medulla and the mesencephalon increases the sensitivity to inflation. 9. Inhibitory afferents run in all branchial branches of the IXth and Xth nerves and in the pre-spiracular branch of the VIIth nerve. 10. It is suggested that in its response to vagotomy the dogfish resembles a medullary mammal.


1951 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-21
Author(s):  
C. A. G. WIERSMA

It is shown that the opener muscle of the hermit crab, Eupagurus bernhardus L., receives a single motor axon. Stimulation of this axon results, when appropriate stimuli are used, in two types of contractions comparable with the fast and slow contractions of doubly motor-innervated crustacean muscles. The theoretical implications of this finding are discussed and a hypothesis offered to explain the mechanism which makes the two contraction types possible. The physiological and anatomical features of the innervation of the four most distal muscles in the legs of Eupagurus are described.


1971 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 205-212 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. GALT ◽  
G. O. MACKIE

1. Reversal of the water current through the pharynx of Oikopleura is brought about by a change in the action of the cilia of the two stigmatal ciliated rings. These ‘ciliary reversals’ occur synchronously in the two ciliated rings and can be evoked by the addition of particulate material to the incoming water or by tactile or electrical stimulation of the lips. 2. Nerves run from the lips via the brain to individual ciliated cells, and it is therefore likely that the ciliated cells are under nervous control. 3. At each ciliary reversal an electrical potential can be picked up on the body surface. The same events are recorded by microelectrodes inserted into the ciliated rings. The microelectrode recordings resemble intracellular recordings, and the reversal potentials are considered to represent depolarizations of the membranes of the ciliated cells. 4. Ciliary reversals continue after removal of the brain, suggesting the existence of a peripheral pacemaker.


1993 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 765-780 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Fetcho ◽  
K. R. Svoboda

1. We developed a fictive swimming preparation of goldfish that will allow us to study the cellular basis of interactions between swimming and escape networks in fish. 2. Stimulation of the midbrain in decerebrate goldfish produced rhythmic alternating movements of the body and tail similar to swimming movements. The amplitude and frequency of the movements were dependent on stimulus strength. Larger current strengths or higher frequencies of stimulation produced larger-amplitude and/or higher-frequency movements. Tail-beat frequency increased roughly linearly with current strength over a large range, with plateaus in frequency sometimes evident at the lowest and highest stimulus strengths. 3. Electromyographic (EMG) recordings from axial muscles on opposite sides at the same rostrocaudal position showed that stimulation of the midbrain led to alternating EMG bursts, with bursts first on one side, then the other. These bursts occurred at a frequency equal to the tail-beat frequency and well below the frequency of brain stimulation. EMG bursts recorded from rostral segments preceded those recorded from caudal segments on the same side of the body. The interval between individual spikes within EMG bursts sometimes corresponded to the interval between brain stimuli. Thus, whereas the frequency of tail beats and EMG bursts was always much slower than the frequency of brain stimulation, there was evidence of individual brain stimuli in the pattern of spikes within bursts. 4. After paralyzing fish that produced rhythmic movement on midbrain stimulation, we monitored the motor output during stimulation of the midbrain by using extracellular recordings from spinal motor nerves. We characterized the motor pattern in detail to determine whether it showed the features present in the motor output of swimming fish. The fictive preparations showed all of the major features of the swimming motor pattern recorded in EMGs from freely swimming fish. 5. The motor nerves, like the EMGs produced by stimulating midbrain, showed rhythmic bursting at a much lower frequency than the brain stimulus. Bursts on opposite sides of the body alternated. The frequency of bursting ranged from 1.5 to 13.6 Hz and was dependent on stimulus strength, with higher strengths producing faster bursting. Activity in rostral segments preceded activity in caudal ones on the same side of the body. Some spikes within bursts of activity occurred at the same frequency as the brain stimulus, but individual brain stimuli were not as evident as those seen in some of the EMGs. 6. The duration of bursts of activity in a nerve was positively and linearly correlated with the time between successive bursts (cycle time).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (3) ◽  
pp. 1343-1353 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ariane Ménard ◽  
Sten Grillner

In vertebrates, locomotion can be initiated by stimulation of the diencephalic locomotor region (DLR). Little is known of the different forebrain regions that provide input to the neurons in DLR. In the lamprey, it had been shown previously that DLR provides monosynaptic input to reticulospinal neurons, which in turn elicit rhythmic ventral root activity at the spinal level. To show that actual locomotor movements are produced from DLR, we use a semi-intact preparation in which the brain stem is exposed and the head fixed, while the body is left to generate actual swimming movements. DLR stimulation induced symmetric locomotor movements with an undulatory wave transmitted along the body. To explore if DLR is under tonic GABAergic input under resting conditions, as in mammals, GABAergic antagonists and agonists were locally administered into DLR. Injections of GABA agonists inhibited locomotion, whereas GABA antagonists facilitated the induction of locomotion. These findings suggest that GABAergic projections provide tonic inhibition that once turned off can release locomotion. Double-labeling experiments were carried out to identify GABAergic projections to the DLR. Populations of GABAergic projection neurons to DLR originated in the caudoventral portion of the medial pallium, the lateral and dorsal pallium, and the striatal area. These different GABAergic projection neurons, which also project to other brain stem motor centers, may represent the basal ganglia output to DLR. Moreover, electrical stimulation of striatum induced long-lasting plateau potentials in reticulospinal cells and associated locomotor episodes dependent on DLR being intact, suggesting that striatum may act via the basal ganglia output identified here.


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