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The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 85 No. 2 February 2001, pp. 594-604
Copyright ©2001 by the American Physiological Society
1Zoologisches Institut, Universität zu Köln, 50923 Cologne; 2Fachbereich Biologie, Universität Kaiserslautern, 67653 Kaiserslautern; and 3Chamissostrasse 16, 70193 Stuttgart, Germany
Akay, Turgay,
Ulrich Bässler,
Petra Gerharz, and
Ansgar Büschges.
The Role of Sensory Signals From the Insect Coxa-Trochanteral
Joint in Controlling Motor Activity of the Femur-Tibia Joint. J. Neurophysiol. 85: 594-604, 2001. Interjoint coordination in multi-jointed
limbs is essential for the generation of functional locomotor patterns.
Here we have focused on the role that sensory signals from the
coxa-trochanteral (CT) joint play in patterning motoneuronal activity
of the femur-tibia (FT) joint in the stick insect middle leg. This
question is of interest because when the locomotor system is active,
movement signals from the FT joint are known to contribute to
patterning of activity of the central rhythm-generating networks
governing the CT joint. We investigated the influence of femoral
levation and depression on the activity of tibial motoneurons. When the locomotor system was active, levation of the femur often induced a
decrease or inactivation of tibial extensor activity while flexor motoneurons were activated. Depression of the femur had no systematic influence on tibial motoneurons. Ablation experiments revealed that
this interjoint influence was not mediated by signals from movement
and/or position sensitive receptors at the CT joint, i.e., trochanteral
hairplate, rhombal hairplate, or internal levator receptor organ.
Instead the influence was initiated by sensory signals from a field of
campaniform sensillae, situated on the proximal femur (fCS). Selective
stimulation of these fCS produced barrages of inhibitory postsynaptic
potentials (IPSPs) in tibial extensor motoneurons and activated tibial
flexor motoneurons. During pharmacologically activated rhythmic
activity of the otherwise isolated mesothoracic ganglion (pilocarpine,
5 × 10
4 M),
deafferented except for the CT joint, levation of the femur as well had
an inhibitory influence on tibial extensor motoneurons. However, the
influence of femoral levation on the rhythm generated was rather labile
and only sometimes a reset of the rhythm was induced. In none of the
preparations could entrainment of rhythmicity by femoral movement be
achieved, suggesting that sensory signals from the CT joint only weakly
affect central rhythm-generating networks of the FT joint. Finally, we
analyzed the role of sensory signals from the fCS during walking by
recording motoneuronal activity in the single middle leg preparation
with fCS intact and after their removal. These experiments showed that
fCS activity plays an important role in generating tibial motoneuron
activity during the stance phase of walking.
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