Abstract
We studied a specific sensory-motor pathway in the isolated leech ganglia. Pressure-sensitive mechanosensory neurons were stimulated with trains of action potentials at 5-20 Hz while recording the responses of the annulus erector motorneurons that control annuli erection. The response of the annulus erector neurons was a succession of excitatory postsynaptic potentials followed by inhibitory postsynaptic potentials. The excitatory postsynaptic potentials had a brief time-course while the inhibitory postsynaptic potentials had a prolonged time-course that enabled their temporal summation. Thus, the net effect of pressure-sensitive neuron stimulation on the annulus erector neurons was inhibitory. Both phases of the response were mediated by chemical transmission; the excitatory postsynaptic potentials were transmitted via a monosynaptic pathway, and the inhibitory postsynaptic potentials via a polysynaptic one. The pattern of expression of this dual response depended on the field of innervation of the sensory neuron and it was under the influence of cell 151, a non-spiking interneuron, that could regulate the expression of the hyperpolarization. The interaction between pressure-sensitive neurons and annulus erector neuron reveals how sensory specificity, connectivity pattern and regulatory elements interplay in a specific sensory-motor network.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 233-241 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Journal of Comparative Physiology - A Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology |
Volume | 184 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Feb 1999 |
Keywords
- Electric junction
- Leech
- Non-spiking interneuron
- Sensory integration
- Sensory-motor
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Physiology
- Animal Science and Zoology
- Behavioral Neuroscience