Summary
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1.
Ventral giant interneurons were stimulated intracellularly alone and in pairs, while levator and depressor motor neurons of one metathoracic leg were recorded extracellularly.
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2.
Only one ventral GI (GI-1) can elicit strong motor responses on its own but the magnitude of these responses declines sharply after the initial trial (Figs. 1 and 2).
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3.
GI-1 can elicit stronger motor responses when paired with another ventral GI (e.g. GI-2) (Fig. 3).
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4.
The motor response of a dorsal GI is not augmented by simultaneous pairing with a ventral GI. If anything it is decreased in magnitude (Figs. 5 and 6).
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5.
When ventral GI stimulation is delayed by 100– 150 ms after dorsal GI stimulation, the ventral GI can enhance the motor response of the dorsal GI (Figs. 8 and 9).
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Abbreviations
- GI :
-
giant interneuron
References
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A preliminary account of this work has been published (Ritzmann 1979)
I thank Mr. Alan J. Pollack, Ms. Mary Lu Voytko and Mr. Matthew Levin for technical assistance and Drs. J.M. Camhi, C.R. Fourtner, N.B. Rushforth, J. Westin and Ms. M. Tobias for critically reading the manuscript. This research was supported by NSF Grant BNS78-06192.
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Ritzmann, R.E. Motor responses to paired stimulation of giant interneurons in the cockroachPeriplaneta americana . J. Comp. Physiol. 143, 71–80 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00606070
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00606070