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A I Selverston

Publications and source records attributed to A I Selverston.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1997

Oscillatory mechanisms in pairs of neurons connected with fast inhibitory synapses.

We study dynamical mechanisms underlying oscillatory behavior in reciprocal inhibitory pairs of neurons, using a two-dimensional cell model. We introduce one-and-two dimensional phase portraits to illustrate the behaviors, thus reducing the study of dynamical mechanisms to planar geometrical properties. We examined whether other mechanisms besides the escape and release mechanisms (Wang and Rinzel, 1992) might be needed for some cases of reciprocal inhibition, and show that, within the confines of a simple two-dimensional cell model, escape and release are sufficient for all cases. We divided the behaviors of a single cell into six different types and examined the joint behaviors arising from every combination of pairs of cells with behaviors drawn from these six types. For the case of two quiescent cells or two cells each having plateau potentials, bifurcation diagrams demonstrate the relations between synaptic threshold and synaptic strength necessary for oscillations by escape, oscillations by release, or network-generated plateau potentials. Thus we clarify the relationship between plateau potentials and oscillations in a cell. Using the two dimensional cell model we examine 1:N beating between cells and find that our simple model displays many of the essential dynamical properties displayed by more sophisticated models, some of which relate to thalamocortical spindling.

Neural Networks, Computer↗
PubMed1997

Synchronous bursting can arise from mutual excitation, even when individual cells are not endogenous bursters.

Mutual excitation between two neurons is generally thought to raise the excitation level of each neuron or, if they are both bursty, to act to synchronize their bursts. If only one is bursty, it can induce synchronized bursts in the other cell. Here we show that two nonbursty cells can be induced to burst in synchrony by mutual excitatory synaptic connections, provided the presynaptic threshold for graded synaptic transmission at each synapse is at a different level. This mechanism may operate in a recently discovered network in the lobster Homarus gammarus. By a duality between presynaptic threshold and injected current, we also show that two identical, nonbursty, mutual excitatory cells could be induced to burst in synchrony by injecting differing amounts of current in the two cells. Finally we show that differential oscillations between two mutual excitatory cells could be stopped by a slow-tailed hyperpolarizing current pulse into one cell or a slow-tailed depolarizing pulse into the other.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Synchronized action of synaptically coupled chaotic model neurons.

Experimental observations of the intracellular recorded electrical activity in individual neurons show that the temporal behavior is often chaotic. We discuss both our own observations on a cell from the stomatogastric central pattern generator of lobster and earlier observations in other cells. In this paper we work with models with chaotic neurons, building on models by Hindmarsh and Rose for bursting, spiking activity in neurons. The key feature of these simplified models of neurons is the presence of coupled slow and fast subsystems. We analyze the model neurons using the same tools employed in the analysis of our experimental data. We couple two model neurons both electrotonically and electrochemically in inhibitory and excitatory fashions. In each of these cases, we demonstrate that the model neurons can synchronize in phase and out of phase depending on the strength of the coupling. For normal synaptic coupling, we have a time delay between the action of one neuron and the response of the other. We also analyze how the synchronization depends on this delay. A rich spectrum of synchronized behaviors is possible for electrically coupled neurons and for inhibitory coupling between neurons. In synchronous neurons one typically sees chaotic motion of the coupled neurons. Excitatory coupling produces essentially periodic voltage trajectories, which are also synchronized. We display and discuss these synchronized behaviors using two "distance" measures of the synchronization.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1996

Spatio-temporal dynamics of cyclic AMP signals in an intact neural circuitm.

The functional properties of neuronal networks can be reconfigured by a variety of modulatory neurotransmitters, which may alter the excitable properties of neurons or the strengths of synaptic connections. Many of these neuromodulators act via the intracellular second messenger cyclic AMP, but their effects on the spatial distribution of cAMP concentration have never been examined in an intact neural circuit. We therefore used the cAMP-indicator dye FICRhR (refs 1, 2) to investigate the effect of several neuromodulators (octopamine, dopamine, acetylcholine, serotonin and proctolin) on cAMP distribution in identified neurons of the lobster stomatogastric ganglion (STG). When added to the bath solution, each of these neuromodulators produced a unique pattern of cAMP transients among the different neurons of the STG. Electrical stimulation of neurons innervating the STG causes synaptic release of endogenous modulators, leading within a few seconds to local increases of cAMP in fine neurite branches, the site where many modulators are thought to act. After prolonged stimulation, cAMP diffuses from the site of production to throughout the neuritic tree and eventually to the cell body. Diffusion of cAMP may explain how transient localized inputs to a neuron can produce long-range effects such as long-term changes in gene expression.

Animals↗
PubMed1996

Control of locomotion in the marine mollusc Clione limacina. XI. Effects of serotonin.

The locomotor activity in the marine mollusc Clione limacina has been found to be strongly excited by serotonergic mechanisms. In the present study putative serotonergic cerebropedal neurons were recorded simultaneously with pedal locomotor motoneurons and interneurons. Stimulation of serotonergic neurons produced acceleration of the locomotor rhythm and strengthening of motoneuron discharges. These effects were accompanied by depolarization of motoneurons, while depolarization of the generator interneurons was considerably lower (if it occurred at all). Effects of serotonin application on isolated locomotor and non-locomotor pedal neurons were studied. Serotonin (5 x 10(-7) to 1 x 10(-6) M) affected most pedal neurons. All locomotor neurons were excited by serotonin. This suggests that serotonergic command neurons exert direct influence on locomotor neurons. Effects of serotonin on nonlocomotor neurons were diverse, most neurons being inhibited by serotonin. Some effects of serotonin on locomotor neurons could not be reproduced by neuron depolarization. This suggests that, along with depolarization, serotonin modulates voltage-sensitive membrane properties of the neurons. As a result, serotonin promotes the endogenous rhythmical activity in neurons of the C. limacina locomotor central pattern generator.

Animals↗
PubMed1995

Slow and fast synaptic inhibition evoked by pattern-generating neurons of the gastric mill network in spiny lobsters.

1. In this paper we begin an assessment of the role of synaptic properties, especially synaptic time course, in the function of the central pattern generator circuit (CPG) that controls rhythmic movements of the gastric mill in the foregut of spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus). 2. The majority of neurons in the gastric CPG are motor neurons (MNs) that innervate striated muscles of the gastric mill but that also make electrical and inhibitory chemical interconnections within the neuropil of the stomatogastric ganglion. We studied the ionic dependence, pharmacology, and time course of inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs) evoked by two such MNs, the dorsal gastric (DG) and lateral gastric (LG), in their central synaptic partners. In the periphery, LG and DG are thought to release glutamate. 3. LG and DG evoke two types of IPSPs in follower neurons. The first, fast type of IPSP rises rapidly (the graded component within 100-300 ms, the spike-mediated components within a few tens of ms), is mediated by increased chloride and potassium conductances, and is blocked by < or = 10 microM picrotoxin (PTX). These fast IPSPs closely resemble the glutamatergic IPSPs described in the pyloric circuit of the same ganglion. 4. The second, slow type of IPSP has a long rise time (1-2 s), is mediated by increased conductance to potassium (with little or no involvement of chloride), and is not blocked by 10 microM PTX, 5 mM tetraethylammonium chloride, or 0.1 mM scopolamine. These properties distinguish slow IPSPs from the forms of glutamatergic and cholinergic inhibition that have been described in the pyloric circuit. 5. Fast inhibition occurs alone at connections from DG and LG to power stroke MNs (median gastric and gastric mill). Slow inhibition occurs in parallel with fast inhibition (producing dual-component responses) at connections from LG to return stroke neurons [lateral posterior gastric MNs, (LPGs) and interneuron 1]. DG seems to evoke only a slow IPSP in LPGs. 6. The transmitter mediating the fast IPSPs is likely to be glutamate. We discuss possible mechanisms for the slow IPSP but have no evidence at present concerning the transmitter(s) involved. Slow inhibition is likely to be an important synaptic "building block" in the gastric CPG; it is "tuned" to the duration of gastric bursts and may contribute to the long cycle period of gastric rhythms.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1995

Glutamate-gated inhibitory currents of central pattern generator neurons in the lobster stomatogastric ganglion.

Inhibitory glutamatergic neurotransmission is an elemental "building block" of the oscillatory networks within the crustacean stomatogastric ganglion (STG). This study constitutes the initial characterization of glutamatergic currents in isolated STG neurons in primary culture. Superfusion of 1 mM L-glutamate evoked a current response in 45 of 65 neurons examined. The evoked current incorporated two kinetically distinct components in variable proportion: a fast desensitizing component and a slower component. The current was mediated by an outwardly rectifying conductance increase and reversed at -48.8 +/- 5.3 mV. Reducing the external chloride concentration by 50% deflected the glutamate equilibrium potential (Eglu) by +14 mV, while increasing external potassium threefold shifted Eglu by up to +6 mV. Ibotenic acid fully activated both components of the glutamate response. Saturating concentrations of glutamate completely occluded neuronal responses to ibotenic acid, indicating that ibotenic acid was activating the same receptor(s) as glutamate. Millimolar concentrations of quisqualic acid, kainate, AMPA, and NMDA each failed to evoke any response. Picrotoxin (10(-4)M) completely blocked the glutamate response. Niflumic acid (100 microM) blocked > 80% of the desensitizing component and congruent to 50% of the sustained component. Reduction or elimination of extracellular calcium did not abolish the response. This study extends the ionic and pharmacological analysis of glutamatergic conductances in STG neurons. The currents described are consistent with glutamatergic inhibitory synaptic and agonist-evoked responses previously described in situ. We discuss their pharmacology, ionic mechanisms, and functional significance.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Multiple effects of an identified proprioceptor upon gastric pattern generation in spiny lobsters.

1. Using deafferented preparations of the stomatogastric nervous system of spiny lobsters (Panulirus interruptus), we stimulated the central soma of the Anterior Gastric Receptor neuron (AGR) and analyzed sensorimotor integration in the gastric central pattern generator during rhythm production. 2. Driving AGR to spike tonically at lower frequencies (10-20/s) accelerated the gastric rhythm, while higher frequencies (> or = 30/s) suppressed it. 3. Shorter spike trains in AGR evoked phase-dependent resetting of the gastric rhythm. Repetitive trains could entrain rhythms to both longer and shorter cycle periods. Some pattern-generating effects are consistent with effects upon the lateral gastric neuron, an influential member of the gastric mill network. 4. AGR affected the burst intensity of many of the gastric neurons in specific, complex ways. Some power-stroke motor neurons were excited because AGR activated excitatory, premotor interneurons (E cells). However, AGR also activated parallel, seemingly inhibitory inputs, whose mechanism remains unclear. Still other effects on motor neurons may be mediated partly by synaptic interactions within the network.

Animals↗
PubMed1994

Partial purification, tissue distribution and modulatory activity of a crustacean cholecystokinin-like peptide.

Reversed-phase chromatography was used to separate several forms of cholecystokinin-like peptides (CCKLP) from the pericardial organs (PCOs) of the spiny lobster Panulirus interruptus. Fast protein liquid chromatography of PCOs, stomatogastric ganglia (STGs) and eyestalks revealed five peaks of CCKLP (peaks A-E) that were common to all three tissues, as well as two additional peaks (peaks F and G) in the STG. Peaks A-E were present in the hemolymph of fed, but not starved, lobsters. The bioactivity of peaks A-E was tested on the gastric mill rhythm of the isolated STG. Only peak E elicited activity. The effects of peak E included activating the gastric mill rhythm in quiescent preparations and strengthening existing rhythms in a dose-dependent manner. Further purification of peak E by high performance liquid chromatography resolved this peak into two immunoreactive peaks, one of which retained its bioactivity. The effects of peak E were blocked by the CCK antagonist proglumide. These results are consistent with a role for peak E in the feeding-induced activation of the gastric mill.

Animals↗
PubMed1993

Modeling the gastric mill central pattern generator of the lobster with a relaxation-oscillator network.

1. The gastric mill central pattern generator (CPG) controls the chewing movements of teeth in the gastric mill of the lobster. This CPG has been extensively studied, but the precise mechanism underlying pattern generation is not well understood. The goal of this research was to develop a simplified model that captures the principle, biologically significant features of this CPG. We introduce a simplified neuron model that embodies approximations of well-known membrane currents, and is able to reproduce several global characteristics of gastric mill neurons. A network built with these neurons, using graded synaptic transmission and having the synaptic connections of the biological circuit, is sufficient to explain much of the network's behavior. 2. The cell model is a generalization and extension of the Van der Pol relaxation oscillator equations. It is described by two differential equations, one for current conservation and one for slow current activation. The model has a fast current that may, by adjusting one parameter, have a region of negative resistance in its current-voltage (I-V) curve. It also has a slow current with a single gain parameter that can be regarded as the combination of slow inward and outward currents. 3. For suitable values of the fast current parameter and the slow current parameter, the isolated model neuron exhibits several different behaviors: plateau potentials, postinhibitory rebound, postburst hyperpolarization, and endogenous oscillations. When the slow current is separated into inward and outward fractions with separately adjustable gain parameters, the model neuron can fire tonically, be quiescent, or generate spontaneous voltage oscillations with varying amounts of depolarization or hyperpolarization. 4. The most common form of synaptic interaction in the gastric CPG is reciprocal inhibition. A pair of identical model cells, connected with reciprocal inhibition, oscillates in antiphase if either the isolated cells are endogenous oscillators, or they are quiescent without plateau potentials, or they have plateau potentials but the synaptic strengths are below a critical level. If the isolated cells have widely differing frequencies (or would have if the cells were made to oscillate by adjusting the fast currents), reciprocal inhibition entrains the cells to oscillate with the same frequency but with phases that are advanced or retarded relative to the phases seen when the cells have the same frequency. The frequency of the entrained pair of cells lies between the frequencies of the original cells. The relative phases can also be modified by using very unequal synaptic strengths.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Pattern generation.

The study of rhythmic motor pattern generation continues to be dominated by preparations in which cellular and circuit mechanisms can be bridged. Using these preparations, basic questions such as how circuits can be modified in order to generate a large number of patterns have begun to be answered. The action of neuromodulators on second messengers and channel proteins can provide a link between molecular studies and behavior. There has been a large increase in the use of computer simulations, and their usefulness as a way of studying pattern generation is growing.

Animals↗
PubMed1992

Mechanisms of gastric rhythm generation in the isolated stomatogastric ganglion of spiny lobsters: bursting pacemaker potentials, synaptic interactions, and muscarinic modulation.

1. The gastric central pattern generator (CPG), located in the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of the spiny lobster (Panulirus interruptus), is nonrhythmic when deprived of neuromodulatory inputs from anterior ganglia. Leaving these inputs intact in vitro can sustain a gastric rhythm but also introduces numerous, uncontrolled and largely unknown modulatory and synaptic influences that greatly complicate analysis of this CPG. 2. Here we induced gastric rhythms in the isolated STG, by superfusing a specific modulator, the muscarinic agonist, pilocarpine. Muscarinic agents sustain vigorous gastric rhythms in the isolated STG. Our aim was to analyze the pattern-generating functions of the restricted gastric circuit, free of complicating influences from other ganglia, and under specific (muscarinic) modulation. 3. We used combinations of multiple cell hyperpolarizations, photodeletions, and synaptic blockade by picrotoxin to assess the pattern-generating role of individual gastric neurons and to study the activity of subcircuits. 4. Four identified gastric neurons [lateral gastric (LG), dorsal gastric (DG), 2 electrically coupled lateral posterior gastric (2LPGs)] acted as pattern-generating cells. They showed bursting pacemaker potentials (BPPs), i.e., plateau (or driver) potentials that underlay bursts of axonal spikes and slow, interburst depolarizing potentials that underlay repetitive burst activity. LG and DG, at least, became conditional bursters, able to burst repetitively because of intrinsic oscillations. The other gastric neurons behaved mainly as follower cells and derived their rhythmic bursting from synaptic coupling to the pattern-generator cells and from their own intrinsic (but nonoscillatory) properties. 5. The pattern-generating neurons form a novel "kernel" circuit that works by the cooperative interaction of cellular properties and synaptic connectivity. 6. This study constitutes the first complete and fully consistent analysis of pattern generation in the gastric network of the isolated STG. These mechanisms pertain to muscarinic rhythms in particular but also, we suggest, to gastric rhythm generation and CPG function in general. We suggest that 1) rhythmicity normally depends on the induction of bursty membrane properties in at least some component neurons; 2) different subcircuits can produce rhythmic patterns and may be activated by different modulators; and 3) the gastric network shares several important "building blocks" with CPGs that have been analyzed in other systems. 7. Muscarinic inputs are implicated as an important gastric regulator. We compare these responses with the reported modulatory actions of the anterior pyloric modulator (AMP), an identified, putatively cholinergic input interneuron that may act via muscarinic mechanisms.

Animals↗
PubMed1991

Distribution of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity within the stomatogastric nervous systems of four species of decapod crustacea.

The distribution of cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity was studied in the stomatogastric nervous systems, pericardial organs, and haemolymph of four species of decapod crustacea, by using immunocytochemical and radioimmunoassay techniques. Whereas cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity was found within the stomatogastric nervous systems of all four species, its distribution in each is unique. Two species (Panulirus interruptus and Homarus americanus) have cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity within fibers and neuropil of the stomatogastric ganglion (STG); two other species (Cancer antenarius and Procambarus clarkii) do not. Further, the cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity within the STGs of Panulirus and Homarus arise from distinct structures; from a projection of anterior ganglia in Panulirus, and from somata within the posterior motor nerves in Homarus. The staining in the other ganglia of the stomatogastric nervous system also shows some interspecies variability, although it appears to be more highly conserved than staining within the STG. These differences in staining were confirmed by measuring the amount of CCK-like peptide present in tissue extracts of ganglia by radioimmunoassay. In contrast to the variable staining within the STG, all four species have cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity within the neurosecretory pericardial organs and thoracic segmental nerves. This cholecystokinin-like immunoreactivity is contained within fibers and within varicosities that coat the surface of these structures. The location of this staining and the presence of detectible levels of CCK-like peptide in the haemolymph suggests that CCK-like peptides in decapod crustacea may be utilized as neurohormones.

Animals↗
PubMed1990

A cholecystokinin-like hormone activates a feeding-related neural circuit in lobster.

The peptide hormone cholecystokinin (CCK) contributes to the production of feeding-related behaviour in mammals, but the mechanism by which it exerts its effects remains unclear. The gastric mill neural circuit of lobster is an experimentally accessible model system for studying the hormonal control of feeding-related behaviour. Composed of 11 identified neurons, this circuit produces rhythmic movement of teeth within the stomach. We have previously shown that the gastric mill motor pattern can be modulated by a cholecystokinin-like peptide in vitro. We report here that (1) after feeding, levels of CCK-like peptide in haemolymph increase with the activation of the gastric mill, (2) injections of CCK activate the gastric mill, and (3) a specific CCK antagonist inhibits feeding-induced gastric mill activity. This neatly demonstrates a casual link between in vivo release of a peptide hormone and activation of a neural circuit.

Animals↗
PubMed1989

Cholecystokinin-like peptide is a modulator of a crustacean central pattern generator.

The presence, release, and physiological effects of a cholecystokinin(CCK)-like peptide within the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) of the lobster, Panulirus interruptus, are described. Indirect immunofluorescence with 2 antisera raised against CCK8 was used to determine the distribution of CCK-like immunoreactivity (CCKLI) in the stomatogastric nervous system. CCKLI was demonstrated in the input nerve and the neuropil of the STG and in neuropil and somata in the commissural ganglia (CGs), brain, and eyestalks. None of the somata within the STG displayed CCKLI. The cross-reactivities of the CCK antisera with several peptides were determined using either a radioimmunoassay or an immunoblot assay; the antisera recognized peptides homologous to CCK but did not cross-react significantly with several unrelated peptides. The STG contains 2 central pattern generators (CPGs), the pyloric and the gastric mill CPGs. Bath application of CCK8 to the STG had modulatory effects on both CPGs, which were dose dependent and reversible. CCK increased the spike frequencies and number of spikes per burst of the pyloric rhythm but had little effect on the period. CCK increased the period of the gastric rhythm and produced changes in the spike frequencies, burst lengths, and phases of gastric units. High concentrations of peptide were needed to produce these effects (10(-6) to 10(-4) M). Finally, stimulation of the stomatogastric nerve (stn), which contains fibers immunoreactive to CCK, produced calcium-dependent release of CCK molar equivalents (CCKE) into the STG. The stn was electrically stimulated and the superfusate around the ganglion was collected and assayed for CCKE using a radioimmunoassay. Stimulation produced the release of 37.1 +/- 7.1 fmol (mean +/- SEM), compared to 13.7 +/- 4.9 fmol for unstimulated controls and 4.9 +/- 2.9 fmol in the absence of calcium. These data suggest that a CCK-like peptide is an endogenous modulator of the stomatogastric ganglion of P. interruptus.

Animals↗
PubMed1988

Gastric mill activity in the lobster. III. Effects of proctolin on the isolated central pattern generator.

1. The response of the isolated gastric central pattern generator (CPG) to bath application of proctolin is characterized and compared with the previously analyzed behavioral response. 2. Proctolin had an excitatory effect on the ongoing spontaneous rhythm of "combined" preparations, in which the stomatogastric ganglion (STG) is connected to the esophageal and commissural ganglia by the stomatogastric nerve (STN). The effect started between 20 s and 5 min and was characterized by strongly increased burst durations as well as increased spike rates in all units except the two lateral posterior gastric (LPG) motoneurons. The effect was strongest in the dorsal gastric (DG) and lateral gastric (LG) motoneurons and was accompanied by a phase change of the DG burst. DG continued spiking throughout large parts of the burst of LG and of the gastric mill (GM) motoneurons, which are antagonists of DG. 3. The threshold concentration was approximately 10(-10) M, and the effects were dose dependent and reversible. 4. LG and DG were identified as target cells for the action of proctolin. In LG regenerative plateau properties were induced, as revealed by its long-lasting plateau potentials, sensitivity for triggering inputs, and the occurrence of oscillatory prepotentials. An induction of endogenous bursting in DG was concluded from preparations, in which DG was cycling alone or bursting with a much shorter period duration than other gastric neurons. Hyperpolarization of DG, which normally has no or weak driving power within the gastric network, demonstrated that under the influence of proctolin, firing of DG can accelerate the gastric rhythm from a 27- to a 9-s period duration. 5. Proctolin does not only have a modulatory influence on an ongoing rhythm, but it also can trigger gastric activity. This function was first concluded from proctolin-treated STGs, which, unlike normal preparations, continue bursting if inputs via the STN are blocked. Finally, triggering was demonstrated directly, since isolated STGs that were not oscillating started a gastric rhythm after 20-30 min of perfusion with proctolin. 6. The proctolin-induced changes of the CPG activity in isolated preparations are in agreement with the effect on gastric mill chewing in the intact animal, in which, depending on the dose, different modes of chewing could be elicited.

Animals↗