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 Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by LAVERACK, M. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by LAVERACK, M. S.

Journal of Experimental Biology 50,129-140 (1969)
Published by Company of Biologists 1969

Mechanoreceptors, Photoreceptors and Rapid Conduction Pathways in the Leech, Hirudo Medicinalis

M. S. LAVERACK ¹

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

1. Mechanoreceptors in the body wall of the leech Hirudo are stimulated by deformation of the animal's surface. They respond at all frequencies of stimulation up to about 50-60 Hz.

2. Light flashes, from a microscope lamp or an electronic flash source, are also a potent means of peripheral stimulation.

3. After peripheral stimulation impulses can be recorded in a fast central pathway. This pathway conducts equally well in the posterior to anterior and in the opposite directions.

4. Interference with either the right or left connective linking any two segmental ganglia does not interrupt the rapid conduction of these impulses.

5. Severance of the median connective or Faivre's nerve interrupts conduction. This seems to implicate at least one, and possibly more, of the nerve fibres of this median connective in the rapid transmission of information from the extremities of the body.

6. A slower conducting pathway also exists in the nerve cord.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				B. L. Moss, A. D. Fuller, C. L. Sahley, and B. D. Burrell Serotonin Modulates Axo-Axonal Coupling Between Neurons Critical for Learning in the Leech J Neurophysiol, October 1, 2005; 94(4): 2575 - 2589. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. D. Burrell, C. L. Sahley, and K. J. Muller Differential Effects of Serotonin Enhance Activity of an Electrically Coupled Neural Network J Neurophysiol, June 1, 2002; 87(6): 2889 - 2895. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. D. Burrell, C. L. Sahley, and K. J. Muller Non-Associative Learning and Serotonin Induce Similar Bi-Directional Changes in Excitability of a Neuron Critical for Learning in the Medicinal Leech J. Neurosci., February 15, 2001; 21(4): 1401 - 1412. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				B. K. Shaw and W. B. Kristan Jr. Relative Roles of the S Cell Network and Parallel Interneuronal Pathways in the Whole-Body Shortening Reflex of the Medicinal Leech J Neurophysiol, September 1, 1999; 82(3): 1114 - 1123. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]