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The anatomy and output connection of a locust visual interneurone; the lobular giant movement detector (LGMD) neurone

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The anatomy of a giant movement detector neurone in the locust lobula (the LGMD) is described on the basis of both intracellular injection of cobalt (Fig. 2) and the reconstruction of osmium-ethyl gallate and silver impregnated serial sections (Fig. 3).

  2. 2.

    It is shown that the LGMD has an anatomically complex junction with a previously described interneurone, the Descending Contralateral Movement Detector (Fig. 4), and that spikes in the LGMD precede 1∶1 with fixed latency spikes in the DCMD (Figs. 1,5).

  3. 3.

    Three separate dendritic subfields are seen in the lobula complex (Figs. 2, 3); these are tentatively ascribed to the three different classes of input to the cell.

  4. 4.

    A large part of the LGMD's terminal arborisation appears to serve only a single functional junction, that with the DCMD (Fig. 4).

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The authors wish to thank Professor C. H. F. Rowell and Dr. David Bentley for their help and encouragement throughout the course of this work.

This research was supported by a NATO/SRC post-doctoral fellowship to M. O'Shea and by NIH Grant No. 1 R01 NS 09404 to C. H. F. Rowell.

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O'Shea, M., Williams, J.L.D. The anatomy and output connection of a locust visual interneurone; the lobular giant movement detector (LGMD) neurone. J. Comp. Physiol. 91, 257–266 (1974). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00698057

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