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Effect of body orientation in the gravitational field on directional sensitivity of the cercal system of neurons in crickets

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Abstract

Changes in the spatial orientation of three-dimensional directional sensitivity diagrams of neurons of the terminal abdominal ganglion of the cricket during body tilting were studied. Spike responses were recorded from neurons of the ganglion to acoustic stimuli in different directions, with the cricket's body tilted at different angles to the horizontal plane. During tilting of the cricket's body the orientation of the directional sensitivity diagrams was found to change parallel with the orientation of the body. Neurons of the abdominal ganglion are excited by cercal sensillae, among which there are receptors which respond to changes in the position of the cricket's body in the gravitational field (gravity receptors). The results suggest that cercal gravity receptors have no specific influence on the directional sensitivity of neurons of the first central division of the cercal system.

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Authors
  1. G. I. Rozhkova
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Additional information

Institute for Problems in Information Transmission, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 12, No. 6, pp. 604–611, November–December, 1980.

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Rozhkova, G.I. Effect of body orientation in the gravitational field on directional sensitivity of the cercal system of neurons in crickets. Neurophysiology 12, 397–403 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066232

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01066232

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