Summary
The ability of ventral cord neurons to code the direction of a vibration source was tested.
The vibration receptors in all six legs were stimulated simultaneously or successively (i.e. with a time delay between stimulation of several leg pairs) in order to simulate vibration signals coming from ahead or behind the animal.
Three groups of vibration sensitive neurons were investigated by extracellular recordings:
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1.
Bimodal vibro-acoustic ventral cord neurons ascending to the brain (VS-neurons). The response patterns of these neurons to vibrational stimulation does not significantly change, when the stimuli are presented simultaneously or successively. The effectiveness of the inputs from the several legs is remarkably different, however. Ipsilateral stimulation is more effective than a contralateral one; the influence of midand hindlegs is greater than that from the forelegs.
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2.
Vibratory ventral cord neurons ascending to the brain (V-neurons). If the different leg pairs are stimulated successively with vibration signals, some of these V-neurons show significant changes in their responses which depend on the direction and the time delay of the presented stimuli.
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3.
Vibratory interneurons restricted to the thoracic nerve cord. In these neurons (which connect the thoracic ganglia), the influence of the receptors of only one leg pair is dominant. Vibratory stimulation of other leg pairs does not alter the responses of these interneurons.
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Abbreviations
- fl :
-
forelegs
- ml :
-
midlegs
- hl :
-
hindlegs
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Čokl, A., Otto, C. & Kalmring, K. The processing of directional vibratory signals in the ventral nerve cord ofLocusta migratoria . J. Comp. Physiol. 156, 45–52 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00610665
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00610665