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The cercus-to-giant interneuron system of crickets

II. Response characteristics of two giant interneurons

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Summary

  1. 1.

    The two largest interneurons in the abdominal nervous system of crickets (the Medial and Lateral Giant Interneurons, MGI and LGI) have been studied using intracellular and extracellular recording techniques and cobalt filling.

  2. 2.

    All of the largest action potentials (5–7mV) seen in the extracellularly recorded phasic response of the connectives anterior to the terminal abdominal ganglion to sound stimulation can be accounted for by the behavior of MGI and LGI. In favorable preparations the action potentials of the two cells can be discriminated from each other on the basis of amplitude, LGI potentials being up to 30% greater than those of MGI.

  3. 3.

    The thresholds of the two cells to sound stimulation are similar, but the intensity response curve of MGI rises relatively steeply while that of LGI rises slowly and may saturate at levels as low as two spikes per response. At moderate sound intensities (e.g. 80 dB) MGI produces the majority of giant action potentials.

  4. 4.

    Both neurons are directionally sensitive to tones. In the horizontal plane they respond maximally when the stimulus is positioned transversely to the cercus ipsilateral to the axon of the interneuron. Directional sensitivity diagrams in three dimensions are presented.

  5. 5.

    Both interneurons exhibit similar frequency response curves and are maximally sensitive to 500 Hz tones.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, State University of New York, 12222, Albany, New York, USA

    R. K. Murphey

  2. Department of Zoology, University of Washington, 98195, Seattle, Washington, USA

    John Palka & R. Hustert

Authors
  1. R. K. Murphey
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  2. John Palka
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  3. R. Hustert
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Additional information

This work was supported by U.S. Public Health Service grants NS-07778 (J.P.) and 7R01NS1295701 (R.K.M.) and National Science Foundation grant BN54523454 (R.K.M.), and a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (R.H.). We appreciate the comments of David Bentley, Jeffrey Camhi and Margrit Schubiger on the manuscript.

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Murphey, R.K., Palka, J. & Hustert, R. The cercus-to-giant interneuron system of crickets. J. Comp. Physiol. 119, 285–300 (1977). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00656639

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00656639

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