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

This Article 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 Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by SANDEMAN, D. C. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by SANDEMAN, D. C.

Journal of Experimental Biology 46,475-485 (1967)
Published by Company of Biologists 1967

Excitation and Inhibition of the Reflex Eye Withdrawal of The Crab Carcinus

D. C. SANDEMAN ¹

¹ Gatty Marine Laboratory and Department of Natural History, University of St Andrews

1. Damage to the statocysts or section of the oesophageal connectives of

1. Damage to the statocysts or section of the oesophageal connectives of Carcinus

2. When the eyes and brain are isolated from the body, repetitive blinking persists and concomitant bursts of large impulses appear in a single motor axon in the optic tract. The length of these bursts varies from 80 to 180 impulses and the interburst intervals from 5 to 60 sec. There is no obvious correlation between burst length and interburst interval.

3. The bursts are inhibited by stimulating the inside half of the ipsilateral oesophageal connective or initiated by stimulation of the oculomotor and tegumentary nerves. If stimulated with a continuous train of pulses these pathways also cause an increase or decrease in the interburst intervals.

4. The actively spiking portion of the eye-withdrawal motor neuron extends into the brain at least as far as the tegumentary/antennary neuropile. Here it is particularly sensitive to cathodal stimulation, yielding trains of spikes to maintained d.c. stimulation. This point is considered to be near the spike initiating locus for the bursts.