Sensory Modalities and Receptive Fields in the Abdominal Nervous System of the Hermit Crab, Pagurus Granosimanus (Stimpson)

1966 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-223
Author(s):  
WILLIAM D. CHAPPLE

1. The morphology and histology of the abdominal nervous system is briefly described. There are three ganglionic roots, as in the crayfish; the first innervates the pleopods and the ventral lateral area of the segment, the second innervates the sclerite of the next posterior segment, and a region posterior and dorsal to it. The third roots are exclusively motor as in the crayfish and have two branches, one of which runs to the superficial ventral muscles and the other to the central flexors. 2. Phasic fast-adapting mechano-receptors similar to those seen in annelids, with overlapping fields extending over much of the segment, have replaced the sensory hair population of the homologous roots in the crayfish. 3. The units on the left side of the animal are more sensitive to mechanical stimuli than those on the right side; this is due to the fact that the right side lies next to the whorl of the shell while the left side faces away from it. 4. Joint receptors are described, but no muscle receptor organs similar to those found in other decapods were observed.

2015 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech Włoskowicz

Abstract Materials from topographic surveys had a serious impact on the labels on the maps that were based on these surveys. Collecting toponyms and information that were to be placed as labels on a final map, was an additional duty the survey officers were tasked with. Regulations concerning labels were included in survey manuals issued by the Austro-Hungarian Militärgeographisches Institut in Vienna and the Polish Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny in Warsaw. The analyzed Austro-Hungarian regulations date from the years 1875, 1887, 1894, 1903 (2nd ed.). The oldest manual was issued during the Third Military Survey of Austria-Hungary (1:25,000) and regulated the way it was conducted (it is to be supposed that the issued manual was mainly a collection of regulations issued prior to the survey launch). The Third Survey was the basis for the 1:75,000 Spezialkarte map. The other manuals regulated the field revisions of the survey. The analyzed Polish manuals date from the years 1925, 1936, and 1937. The properties of the labels resulted from the military purpose of the maps. The geographical names’ function was to facilitate land navigation whereas other labels were meant to provide a military map user with information that could not be otherwise transmitted with standard map symbols. A concern for not overloading the maps with labels is to be observed in the manuals: a survey officer was supposed to conduct a preliminary generalization of geographical names. During a survey both an Austro-Hungarian and a Polish survey officer marked labels on a separate “label sheet”. The most important difference between the procedures in the two institutes was that in the last stage of work an Austro-Hungarian officer transferred the labels (that were to be placed on a printed map) from the “label sheet” to the hand-drawn survey map, which made a cartographer not responsible for placing them in the right places. In the case of the Polish institute the labels remained only on the “label sheets”.


Genetics ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 353-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry A Coyne

Abstract Females of Drosophila melanogaster and its sibling species D. simulans have very different cuticular hydrocarbons, with the former bearing predominantly 7,11-heptacosadiene and the latter 7-tricosene. This difference contributes to reproductive isolation between the species. Genetic analysis shows that this difference maps to only the third chromosome, with the other three chromosomes having no apparent effect. The D. simulans alleles on the left arm of chromosome 3 are largely recessive, allowing us to search for the relevant regions using D. melanogaster deficiencies. At least four nonoverlapping regions of this arm have large effects on the hydrocarbon profile, implying that several genes on this arm are responsible for the species difference. Because the right arm of chromosome 3 also affects the hydrocarbon profile, a minimum of five genes appear to be involved. The large effect of the third chromosome on hydrocarbons has also been reported in the hybridization between D. simulans and its closer relative D. sechellia, implying either an evolutionaly convergence or the retention in D. sechllia of an ancestral sexual dimorphism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 65 ◽  
pp. 492-504
Author(s):  
Sergey V. Zelenin

The present review is devoted to Vasiliy Molodyakov’s book “Charles Morraus and the “Action française” against Germany: from Kaiser to Hitler”. The review examines the main thoughts and postulates of the book. The book represents the first part of the trilogy on the life, activity and views of the French writer, publicist ad thinker Charles Morraus, as well as on the history of the right monarchic movement “Action française”. The article also gives a concise review of the other works of this author.


2011 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 674-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuo Kida ◽  
Koji Inui ◽  
Emi Tanaka ◽  
Ryusuke Kakigi

Numerous studies have demonstrated effects of spatial attention within single sensory modalities (within-modal spatial attention) and the effect of directing attention to one sense compared with the other senses (intermodal attention) on cortical neuronal activity. Furthermore, recent studies have been revealing that the effects of spatial attention directed to a certain location in a certain sense spread to the other senses at the same location in space (cross-modal spatial attention). The present study used magnetoencephalography to examine the temporal dynamics of the effects of within-modal and cross-modal spatial and intermodal attention on cortical processes responsive to visual stimuli. Visual or tactile stimuli were randomly presented on the left or right side at a random interstimulus interval and subjects directed attention to the left or right when vision or touch was a task-relevant modality. Sensor-space analysis showed that a response around the occipitotemporal region at around 150 ms after visual stimulation was significantly enhanced by within-modal, cross-modal spatial, and intermodal attention. A later response over the right frontal region at around 200 ms was enhanced by within-modal spatial and intermodal attention, but not by cross-modal spatial attention. These effects were estimated to originate from the occipitotemporal and lateral frontal areas, respectively. Thus the results suggest different spatiotemporal dynamics of neural representations of cross-modal attention and intermodal or within-modal attention.


Tempo ◽  
1953 ◽  
pp. 19-20
Author(s):  
Donald Mitchell

One of the brightest of the Third Programme's recent efforts was the presentation of a little festival of Pfitzner's music. “Little,” perhaps, may be not quite the right word for however short a series of programmes which included the whole of Palestrina (1912–1915), but it must be remembered that Pfitzner wrote four other operas besides this celebrated chef-d'oeuvre—Der arme Heinrich (1891–93), Die Rose vom Liebesgarten (1897–1900), Das Christelflein (1906, revised 1917), and Das Herz (1930–31). The B.B.C. gave us no glimpse of these other operas, although round about Christmas of each year one of their regional orchestras undertakes the overture to Das Christelflein as an appropriately seasonal piece. For this festival occasion, the B.B.C, in addition to Palestrina, threw in a song recital and a performance of Pfitzner's last chamber work, the Sextet (Op. 55/1945) for piano, violin, viola, cello, double-bass and clarinet. These two latter items may have been well-intentioned choices, but, notwithstanding, they were extremely ill chosen. The Third Programme—as, alas, so often—was either wrongly advised, or simply did not have any (skilled) advice to call upon. For instance, the six songs, ably performed by Mary Jarred, belonged to Pfitzner's earliest period—the latest “Lied”" was Sonst (Op. 15, no. 4), composed in 1904, and most of the other songs were written in the 1880's or 90's. But Pfitzner's output of “Lieder” extends to the 1930's and up to Op. 41—and his maturest and best songs are to be found in the years which the B.B.C. did not remotely approach! Incidentally, no opus numbers were printed in the Radio Times or announced over the air, so that as far as the uninformed listener was concerned he was hearing a “representative” selection of Pfitzner's “Lieder”; in fact, of course, he was hearing nothing of the kind.


Author(s):  
Brian D. Burrell

The medicinal leech (Hirudo verbana) is an annelid (segmented worm) and one of the classic model systems in neuroscience. It has been used in research for over 50 years and was one of the first animals in which intracellular recordings of mechanosensory neurons were carried out. Remarkably, the leech has three main classes of mechanosensory neurons that exhibit many of the same properties found in vertebrates. The most sensitive of these neurons are the touch cells, which are rapidly adapting neurons that detect low-intensity mechanical stimuli. Next are the pressure cells, which are slow-adapting sensory neurons that respond to higher intensity, sustained mechanostimulation. Finally, there are nociceptive neurons, which have the highest threshold and respond to potentially damaging mechanostimuli, such as a pinch. As observed in mammals, the leech has separate mechanosensitive and polymodal nociceptors, the latter responding to mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli. The cell bodies for all three types of mechanosensitive neurons are found in the central nervous system where they are arranged as bilateral pairs. Each neuron extends processes to the skin where they form discrete receptive fields. In the touch and pressure cells, these receptive fields are arranged along the dorsal-ventral axis. For the mechano-only and polymodal nociceptive neurons, the peripheral receptive fields overlap with the mechano-only nociceptor, which also innervates the gut. The leech also has a type of mechanosensitive cell located in the periphery that responds to vibrations in the water and is used, in part, to detect potential prey nearby. In the central nervous system, the touch, pressure, and nociceptive cells all form synaptic connections with a variety of motor neurons, interneurons, and even each other, using glutamate as the neurotransmitter. Synaptic transmission by these cells can be modulated by a variety of activity-dependent processes as well as the influence of neuromodulatory transmitters, such as serotonin. The output of these sensory neurons can also be modulated by conduction block, a process in which action potentials fail to propagate to all the synaptic release sites, decreasing synaptic output. Activity in these sensory neurons leads to the initiation of a number of different motor behaviors involved in locomotion, such as swimming and crawling, as well as behaviors designed to recoil from aversive/noxious stimuli, such as local bending and shortening. In the case of local bending, the leech is able to bend in the appropriate direction away from the offending stimuli. It does so through a combination of which mechanosensory cell receptive fields have been activated and the relative activation of multiple sensory cells decoded by a layer of downstream interneurons.


In the year 1815, Tiedemann observed on the oral surface of the disk of the starfish Astropecten aurantiacus (L) a circumoral band of tissue continuous, in the mid-line of each arm, with a radial band. To these bands he ascribed a vascular function. Johannes Müller (1850), however, indicated that the radial and circular bands were more properly to be regarded as nerve cords, an observation which Owsjannikow (1871), Greeff (1871, 1872, a , 1872, b ), Hoffmann (1872), and Teuscher (1876) subsequently confirmed. Lange (1876), while not accepting the findings of previous authors as to the nervous nature of the circumoral and radial cords, discovered two ridges of tissue above each of the “V’’-shaped radial cords, one lying to the right and the other to the left of the mid-line. These are constituted by thickenings of the coelomic epithelium which lines the radial perihaemal canals, and were considered by Lange to represent nervous tissue. This opinion has been substantiated by Ludwig (1878), Hamann (1883, 1885), and Cuénot (1891) among others; but these and all recent investigators agree that the radial and circumoral cords must also be regarded as constituting part of the asteroid nervous system. Cuénot (1891) therefore distinguishes between the part of the nervous system derived from the ectoderm, such as the circumoral and radial cords, and the part—presumably of mesodermal origin—situated in the coelomic epithelium.


1929 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-460

Dr. D. H. Matveev and engineer N. I. Pautkin. - "Mathematical definition of the approach to the antrum of the mastoid process." The outer surface of the temporal bone with the plane applied to it is always in contact at three points. One of the points lies on the zygomatic process, the other on the temporal line and the third on the most prominent part of the mastoid process. These points define a triangle called the temporal. The results of measurements of more than 50 bone preparations give the right to state the following position: the antrum of the mastoid process is in the direction of the perpendicular restored to the plane of the temporal triangle at the point of intersection of its bisectors. On the available preparations (including those with an unusual location of the antrum), the indicated perpendicular enters the temporal bone in the area of ​​the spina suprameatum Henle and approaches the antrum. In addition, being guided by the found position, an operation was performed on 40 bones. In all cases (including those with an unusual location of the antrum), they inevitably fell into the antrum without any complications in terms of damage to adjacent parts. Based on the studies performed, the following conclusion can be made: 1. The proposed approach to the antrum using the temporal triangle is expedient due to its accuracy, safety in relation to complications and the shortest length of its path. 2. The found dependence of the location of the antrum on the external parts of the temporal bone makes it possible to navigate during antrotomy according to mathematical "data". 3. The mathematical definition of the approach to the antrum raises the question of the practical use of this definition in antrotomy. - Drs. BS Goland, BN Lebedevsky, NK Trutnev, SP Yakhontov took part in the debate and prof. V.K. Trutnev.


1985 ◽  
Vol 54 (3) ◽  
pp. 615-635 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Simons

Glass micropipettes were used to record the activity of 124 single units in the somatosensory vibrissa cortex (SI) of 16 rats in response to combined deflections of contralateral vibrissae. Compact multiangular electromechanical stimulators were used to stimulate individual vibrissal hairs alone or in combinations of two or three adjacent whiskers. Each whisker was stimulated independently to produce controlled temporal and spatial patterns of mechanical stimuli. Following displacement of a vibrissa, unit discharges to subsequent deflections of adjacent whiskers are reduced in a time-dependent fashion. Response suppression is strongest at short interdeflection intervals, i.e., 10-20 ms and decreases progressively during the 50-100 ms following the first deflection. In many cases this period also corresponds with a reduction in ongoing unit discharges. Response suppression was not observed for first-order neurons recorded in the trigeminal ganglion of barbiturate-anesthetized rats. In the cortex, the presence and/or degree of response suppression depends on a number of spatial factors. These include 1) the angular direction(s) in which the individual hairs are moved, 2) the sequence in which two whiskers are deflected, that is, which one is deflected first, 3) the particular combination of whiskers stimulated, and 4) the number (2 or 3) of vibrissae comprising the multiwhisker stimulus. Within a vertical electrode penetration, one particular whisker typically elicits the strongest excitatory and inhibitory effects; other, nearby vibrissae elicit variable (or no) excitation or inhibition. Excitatory and inhibitory subregions of a receptive field could thus be distributed asymmetrically around the maximally effective whisker. In these cases, the receptive fields displayed spatial orientations. Quantitative criteria were used to classify 30 cortical units on the basis of the distribution of inhibitory subregions on either side of the maximally effective whisker. Twenty-one of these cells had receptive fields (RFs) with symmetrical inhibitory side regions. Responses of the other nine units were strongly suppressed by a preceding deflection of a vibrissa on one side but relatively unaffected, or even slightly facilitated, by preceding deflection of the whisker on the other side.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


1967 ◽  
Vol 168 (1011) ◽  
pp. 181-193 ◽  

Three groups of men were tested in a situation involving reaction to two successive stimuli at a short known time interval. Each reaction required the choice of one of two reaction keys, depending upon the light stimulus delivered. For one group of subjects, the first reaction was made easy by making the left key correct for the left light; for the second group, the first reaction was made slower by making the left key correct for the right light. In the third group, one of the two possible stimuli for the first reaction occurred more often than the other, so that the first reaction was sometimes fast and sometimes slow. The second reaction was delayed if the interval between stimuli was shorter than the first reaction time; in conditions where the first reaction time was longer, the second reaction time was delayed by an even greater amount. This result supports the view that a common decision-making mechanism of limited capacity is occupied by the first reaction and so is unable to deal with the second one; two other theories of the effect seem inconsistent with the present data.


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