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Journal of Experimental Biology 58,411-421 (1973)
Published by Company of Biologists 1973

Progressive Decrements in the Activity of Aplysia Neurones Following Repeated Intracellular Stimulation: Implications for Habituation

CATHY LAMAR STEPHENS ¹

¹ Department of Physiology, Center for the Health Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90024

1. Repeated intracellular stimulation of nuerones from the isolated abdominal ganglion of Aplysia californica produced progressive response decrements with parametric features common to trans-synaptic models of habituation.

2. The probability that a constant intracellular pulse of depolarizing current would produce an action potential decreased with repeated stimulation, the response decrements developed with interstimulus intervals ranging from 2 to 10 sec.

3. In all cases, the response decrements were reversible with prolonged rest.

4. In some cases complete recovery did not occur for up to 20 min, which indicated that the spontaneous recovery process was long-term in nature.

5. As is typical of parametric studies of habituation, short, rather than long interstimulus intervals, and a weak, rather than a strong stimulus, produced greater response decrements.

6. These results demonstrate that an individual neurone shows response decrements as a function of repeated stimulation, which suggests that there are at least two processes responsible for the response decrements seen during trans-synaptic stimulation: (a) synaptic depression and (b) a depressive process originating in the post-synaptic neurone.