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Journal of Experimental Biology 164,205-226 (1992)
Published by Company of Biologists 1992

RESPONSE PROPERTIES OF INTERNEURONS OF THE CRICKET CERCAL SENSORY SYSTEM ARE CONSERVED IN SPITE OF CHANGES IN PERIPHERAL RECEPTORS DURING MATURATION

AKIRA CHIBA ¹, GÜNTER KÄMPER ², and R. K. MURPHEY ³

¹ Department of Biology, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA; Present address: Department of Biology (KBT 640), Yale University, PO Box 6666, New Haven, CT 06511, USA
² Department of Biology, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA; Present address: Abteilung fur Vergleichende Neurobiologie, Universitat Ulm, Postfach 4066, 7900 Ulm, Germany
³ Department of Biology, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY 12222, USA; Present address: Neuroscience and Behavior Program, Morrill Science Center (Zoology), University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA

During postembryonic development of the cricket, the total number of filiform hair sensilla in the cereal sensory system increases approximately 40-fold. In addition, individual receptor hairs grow in size, changing the transducer properties of the sensilla and, thereby, the information transmitted to the central nervous system (CNS) by the sensory neurons. Interneurons MGI and 10-3 receive monosynaptic inputs from these sensory neurons and send outputs to anterior ganglia. We show that, in spite of the changes in the periphery, the response properties of these interneurons are relatively constant during development. The two interneurons differ in their frequency response, intensity response and rate of response decrement. Their respective response properties are conserved during the postembryonic period. The results suggest that systematic rearrangement of the sensory neuron-to-interneuron synapses plays an important role in maintaining a constant output of this sensory system to higher centers of the CNS during maturation of the cricket.

Key words: Acheta domesticus, air particle oscillation, filiform hair sensilla, sensory neuron, synaptic rearrangement

Accepted on November 15, 1991