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Intracellular recording and staining of cricket auditory interneurons (Gryllus campestris L.,Gryllus bimaculatus DeGeer)

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Summary

Intracellular recording and staining techniques have been used to investigate physiological and anatomical properties of two kinds of auditory interneurons in the prothoracic ganglion of the crickets,Gryllus campestris L. andGryllus bimaculatus DeGeer: a segmental interneuron (the omega cell) and an auditory interneuron with an ascending axon (AIAA).

Using cobalt-nitrate-filled electrodes we were able to study physiological features for periods as long as 10 min following penetration and simultaneously stain the cell. With potassium-acetate electrodes, similar intracellular recordings lasted longer than an hour.

  1. 1.

    The omega cell is a large segmental auditory neuron with four branching areas (fields A, B, C, D). Two such cells are found in the prothoracic ganglion, as mirror images of one another.

  2. 2.

    The omega cell receives its auditory input entirely from the cell-body side. EPSPs as well as spike activity are seen in the large dendritic root of field A; the spikes are conducted to the contralateral side of the neuron and invade fields C and D, which are considered to be output areas of the neuron.

  3. 3.

    When the two ears are isolated acoustically, allowing separate stimulation of the tympana, it appears that the two omega cells inhibit one another mutually. They may, therefore, participate in the neuronal mechanism involved in directional sensitivity.

  4. 4.

    The omega cell is best tuned to the carrier frequency of the conspecific song, but exhibits a secondary threshold minimum in the region of the higher harmonics. The response is linearly related to the log of the sound intensity, as found in the auditory afferents.

  5. 5.

    The temporal pattern of the cricket calling song is well copied by the omega cell. No optimal “tuning” to specific syllable durations, syllable periods or verse durations was observed. Maintained tones elicit a tonic response and sound envelopes are mimicked by both subthreshold and spike-activity.

  6. 6.

    The auditory interneuron with ascending axon (AIAA) has a dendritic field and ascending axon restricted almost entirely to one hemisphere of the prothoracic ganglion; the cell body is located in the anterior contralateral hemisphere.

  7. 7.

    The AIAA exhibits IPSPs highly synchronized in response to sounds presented at the carrier frequency. At sound frequencies above 10 kHz the AIAA is activated, but the responses to the syllables of the calling song are not as sharply separated as in the omega cell.

  8. 8.

    Latencies of AIAA spike activity are comparable to those in the omega cell and suggest that both cells are first order interneurons.

  9. 9.

    The frequency-dependence of excitation and inhibition in the AIAA make it a candidate element of a neuronal process that might modify response to the calling song in the presence of the courtship song.

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Abbreviations

AIAA:

auditory interneuron (with an) ascending axon

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Abteilung Huber, Max Planck Institut für Verhaltensphysiologie, D-8131, Seewiesen, Federal Republic of Germany

    David W. Wohlers & Franz Huber

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  1. David W. Wohlers
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  2. Franz Huber
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Supported by a Stipendium of the Max Planck Gesellschaft

Supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft within the SPP „Neurale Mechanismen des Verhaltens“ (Hu 35/17)

We are grateful to Dr. U.T. Koch for his invaluable assistance with electronic equipment he designed to solve sound-field problems confronted when working with acoustical stimulation. We thank Dr. J. Thorson for his critical reading of the manuscript. We are also grateful to Ms. H. Bamberg for her assistance with the figures.

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Wohlers, D.W., Huber, F. Intracellular recording and staining of cricket auditory interneurons (Gryllus campestris L.,Gryllus bimaculatus DeGeer). J. Comp. Physiol. 127, 11–28 (1978). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00611922

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