Presynaptic inhibition: the mechanism of protection from habituation of the crayfish lateral giant fibre escape response.

1. Mechanism of protection from habituation of the lateral giant escape reflex of the crayfish was studied. Experiments were designed to determine whether presynaptic inhibition of primary afferents for the reflex occurs following escape command neurone firing, and if so, whether it could account for protection of the first synapse from depression. 2. Synaptic transmission between afferents and interneurone A of the escape reflex is strongly inhibited following giant fibre spikes. 3. Giant fibre firing results in post-synaptic inhibition of interneurone A. However, inhibition of afferent input to interneurone A consistently outlasts both i.p.s.p.s and post-synaptic conductance increases in the neurone; the inhibition, therefore, is probably not exclusively post-synaptic. 4. Giant fibre firing results in excitability changes in sensory afferent terminals as measured by the amplitude of antidromic compound action potentials to focal electrical stimuli applied in the region of afferent terminals in the last abdominal ganglion. The time course of this effect parallels those of protection and inhibition of the first synapse. 5. The magnitude and time course of protection and inhibition of transmission to interneurone A parallel each other closely. Both processes considerably outlast measurable signs of post-synaptic inhibition. 6. We conclude that following giant fibre activity the first synapse of the lateral giant reflex is presynaptically inhibited and the presynaptic inhibition is responsible for the protection effect described in the preceding paper.