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Journal of Experimental Biology 86,259-273 (1980)
Published by Company of Biologists 1980

Pharmacological Analysis of a Monosynaptic Reflex in the Cockroach, Periplaneta Americana

CATHERINE E. CARR ¹ and CHARLES R. FOURTNER ²

¹ Department of Neuroscience, University of California San Diego, M-008, La Folla, California 92037
² Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York Buffalo, Buffalo, New York 14260

1. The monosynaptic connexion between the trochanteral hairplate afferents and the motoneurone D₈ was investigated pharmacologically.

2. Electrical stimulation of the hairplate produced a 1:1 reflex activation of D₈ which was blocked by saline containing 50 mM-Mg²⁺.

3. Changes in the hairplate-to-D₈ reflex and in the tonic activity of D₈ were monitored during perfusion of drugs known to affect cholinergic transmission.

4. The reflex response was blocked by cholinergic antagonists (atropine, d-tubocurarine, -bungarotoxin, hexamethonium, decamethonium and TMA); and by an inhibitor of ACh synthesis (hemicholinium-3); it was blocked and desensitized by agonists (carbachol and nicotine) and depolarized and blocked by an AChE inhibitor (eserine).

5. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that ACh is a sensory transmitter in the insect CNS.