QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online August 3, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 3226-3233 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02368

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Koch, L. M. Articles by Macmillan, D. L. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Koch, L. M. Articles by Macmillan, D. L. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Exploring with damaged antennae: do crayfish compensate for injuries?

L. M. Koch, B. W. Patullo^* and D. L. Macmillan

Department of Zoology, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, 3010, Australia

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: blairp{at}unimelb.edu.au)

Accepted 5 June 2006

Appendages are important sources of sensory information for all animals that possess them but they are commonly damaged in nature. We describe how the tactile system of the crayfish Cherax destructor functioned when subjected to the kind of damage found in wild-caught or cultured animals. Touch information was methodically varied by the removal of antennae and chelae. The resulting behaviour was analysed in a T-maze. Crayfish with a single antenna ablated turned toward the intact appendage, however, those with only a partial ablation did not, suggesting that a tactile information threshold exists for normal behaviour. When exposed to the same environment after an antennal ablation but with no prior experience in that terrain, crayfish also turned toward the side of the intact antenna. By contrast, when animals with experience obtained in a previous trial with intact antennae were tested after ablation of one antenna, they did not turn into one arm of the maze more than the other. These two outcomes indicate that behaviour is affected by an interaction between the time at which an injury occurs and an animal's knowledge of the topography, and that an injury may affect learning. We also tested to see if other appendages could provide tactile information to compensate for antennal loss. Input from the chelae did not affect the turning behaviour of crayfish in the maze.

Key words: crustacea, haptic systems, learning, touch

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?