The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 82 No. 1 July 1999, pp. 512-514
Copyright ©1999 by the American Physiological Society

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Multimodal Convergence of Presynaptic Afferent Inhibition in Insect Proprioceptors

Department of Biological Cybernetics, University of Bielefeld, D-33501 Bielefeld, Germany

Stein, Wolfgang and Josef Schmitz. Multimodal Convergence of Presynaptic Afferent Inhibition in Insect Proprioceptors. J. Neurophysiol. 82: 512-514, 1999.In the leg motor system of insects, several proprioceptive sense organs provide the CNS with information about posture and movement. Within one sensory organ, presynaptic inhibition shapes the inflow of sensory information to the CNS. We show here that also different proprioceptive sense organs can exert a presynaptic inhibition on each other. The afferents of one leg proprioceptor in the stick insect, either the position-sensitive femoral chordotonal organ or the load-sensitive campaniform sensilla, receive a primary afferent depolarization (PAD) from two other leg proprioceptors, the campaniform sensilla and/or the coxal hairplate. The reversal potential of this PAD is about 59 mV, and the PAD is associated with a conductance increase. The properties of this presynaptic input support the hypothesis that this PAD acts as presynaptic inhibition. The PAD reduces the amplitude of afferent action potentials and thus likely also afferent transmitter release and synaptic efficacy. These findings imply that PAD mechanisms of arthropod proprioceptors might be as complex as in vertebrates.