spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by GOLDBERG, J.
Right arrow Articles by LUKOWIAK, K.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by GOLDBERG, J.
Right arrow Articles by LUKOWIAK, K.
Journal of Experimental Biology 96,107-124 (1982)
Published by Company of Biologists 1982

Transfer of Habituation Shows an Interaction Between Neuronal Circuits of the Gill Withdrawal Reflex in Aplysia Californica

JEFF GOLDBERG 1 and KEN LUKOWIAK 1

1 Division of Medical Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N 1N4

The gill withdrawal reflex (GWR) and its subsequent habituation can be evoked by tactile stimulation of the siphon or gill when the CNS is either intact or removed. It has been suggested that the neural circuits that mediate the GWR evoked at these two loci are parallel and independent. We provide three lines of evidence which show that these circuits interact and, therefore, comprise a single integrated system. Firtly, siphon and gill stimulation evoked similar excitatory responses in the central gill motor neurones. Secondly, the GWR habituated by repetitive stimulation at one locus was dishabituated by stimulation of the other locus. Thirdly, transfer of habituation occurred. Although the transfer was seen neurally at the level of central gill motor neurones, transfer of habituation also occurred after the CNS was removed. Therefore, the neuronal circuits mediating the reflexes evoked at the siphon and gill interact within both the CNS and PNS. The PNS is largely responsible for mediating this gill behaviour that is based on such interactions, while the CNS provides suppressive and facilitatory plasticity to these responses to enable Aplysia to better adapt to a changing environment.

Submitted on February 25, 1981






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1982