Mutual interactions between optic lobe circadian pacemakers in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus

Summary

The coupling mechanism between the bilaterally paired optic lobe circadian pacemakers in the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus was investigated by recording locomotor activity, under constant light or constant red light, after the optic nerve was unilaterally severed.

• 1. The majority (about 70%) of the animals showed a locomotor rhythm with 2 rhythmic components; one freerunning with a period of 25.33 ± 0.41 (SD) h and the other with 24.36 ± 0.37 (SD) h under constant light (Fig. 3A).

• 2. Removal of the intact side optic lobe abolished the longer period component (Fig. 4A), while the operation on the operated side caused a reverse effect (Fig. 4B), indicating that the longer and the shorter period components are driven by the pacemaker on the intact and the operated side, respectively.

• 3. The activity driven by a pacemaker was inhibited during the subjective day of the contralateral pacemaker (circadian time 0–10, Fig. 5).

• 4. The freerunning periods of the two components were not constant but varied as a function of the mutual phase angle relationship (Figs. 3A, 7, 8).

These results suggest that the 2 optic lobe pacemakers weakly couple to one another and that the cricket maintains a stable temporal structure in its behavior through the phase-dependent mututal inhibition of activity and the phase-dependent freerunning period modulation.