Species-specific behavioral patterns correlate with differences in synaptic connections between homologous mechanosensory neurons

We characterized the behavioral responses of two leech species, Hirudo verbana and Erpobdella obscura, to mechanical skin stimulation and examined the interactions between the pressure mechanosensory neurons (P cells) that innervate the skin. To quantify behavioral responses, we stimulated both intact leeches and isolated body wall preparations from the two species. In response to mechanical stimulation, Hirudo showed local bending behavior, in which the body wall shortened only on the side of the stimulation. Erpobdella, in contrast, contracted both sides of the body in response to touch. To investigate the neuronal basis for this behavioral difference, we studied the interactions between P cells. Each midbody ganglion has four P cells; each cell innervates a different quadrant of the body wall. Consistent with local bending, activating any one P cell in Hirudo elicited polysynaptic inhibitory potentials in the other P cells. In contrast, the P cells in Erpobdella had excitatory polysynaptic connections, consistent with the segment-wide contraction observed in this species. In addition, activating individual P cells caused asymmetrical body wall contractions in Hirudo and symmetrical body wall contractions in Erpobdella. These results suggest that the different behavioral responses in Erpobdella and Hirudo are partly mediated by interactions among mechanosensory cells

From synapses to behavior: development of a sensory-motor circuit in the leech

The development of neuronal circuits has been advanced greatly by the use of imaging techniques that reveal the activity of neurons during the period when they are constructing synapses and forming circuits. This review focuses on experiments performed in leech embryos to characterize the development of a neuronal circuit that produces a simple segmental behavior called "local bending." The experiments combined electrophysiology, anatomy, and FRET-based voltage-sensitive dyes (VSDs). The VSDs offered two major advantages in these experiments: they allowed us to record simultaneously the activity of many neurons, and unlike other imaging techniques, they revealed inhibition as well as excitation. The results indicated that connections within the circuit are formed in a predictable sequence: initially neurons in the circuit are connected by electrical synapses, forming a network that itself generates an embryonic behavior and prefigures the adult circuit; later chemical synapses, including inhibitory connections, appear, "sculpting" the circuit to generate a different, mature behavior. In this developmental process, some of the electrical connections are completely replaced by chemical synapses, others are maintained into adulthood, and still others persist and share their targets with chemical synaptic connections.Fil: Marin Burgin, Antonia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; Argentina. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Kristan, William B.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: French, Kathleen A.. University of California at San Diego; Estados Unido

Widespread inhibition proportional to excitation controls the gain of a leech behavioral circuit

Changing gain in a neuronal system has important functional consequences, but the underlying mechanisms have been elusive. Models have suggested a variety of neuronal and systems properties to accomplish gain control. Here, we show that the gain of the neuronal network underlying local bending behavior in leeches depends on widespread inhibition. Using behavioral analysis, intracellular recordings, and voltage-sensitive dye imaging, we compared the effects of blocking just the known lateral inhibition with blocking all GABAergic inhibition. This revealed an additional source of inhibition, which was widespread and increased in proportion to increasing stimulus intensity. In a model of the input/output functions of the three-layered local bending network, we showed that inhibiting all interneurons in proportion to the stimulus strength produces the experimentally observed change in gain. This relatively simple mechanism for controlling behavioral gain could be prevalent in vertebrate as well as invertebrate nervous systems.Fil: Baca, Serapio M.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Marin Burgin, Antonia. University of California at San Diego; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires. Fundación Instituto Leloir. Instituto de Investigaciones Bioquímicas de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Wagenaar, Daniel A.. University of California at San Diego; Estados UnidosFil: Kristan, William B.. University of California at San Diego; Estados Unido

Visualizing Antarctica as a Place in Time

This article presents a chronogeographic account of the Antarctic spatialities that are inflected through the image of the RADARSAT map. Focusing on time as a spatializing operation within the visual geography of globalizing and globally available cartographies, the author questions the multiple geographies that must be considered in a geopolitical account of such a mapping. The subject of this topology is the “event” of the NASA RADARSAT map of Antarctica exhibiting the effects of global warming as a scientific and media event on the Web. Specifically the RADARSAT map documents destruction and also renders it innocuous through technologies of distance. This realization of geopolitical imperatives through scientific visualization reveals particular tensions and operations within Antarctic and global visual cultures. As a narrative cartography, it exhibits how geographic information systems operate in a plurality of visual regimes. The author concludes that the politics of visualizing Antarctica is embedded in the histories of its media production and in this reveals how time has a chronogeographic operation