Young J Z
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford.
Boll Soc Ital Biol Sper. 1990 Jul;66(7):607-13.
The sequence of discoveries that has followed the investigation of this small yellow spot shows the value of studies begun out of "mere curiosity". The spot occurs on the stellate ganglion of octopods. It proved to be an enclosed sac, perhaps a gland. The search for it in squids and cuttlefishes led to the discovery of the giant nerve fibres. At first they were thought to be veins but we soon showed that they were nerve fibres concerned with jet propulsion. Their action potentials, membranes and synapses have been used for thousand of studies, including those that led to the Hodkin Huxley equations. They have been the basis of much of modern neuroscience. The epistellar body itself proved not to be a gland but a photoreceptor. Comparable photosensitive vesicles are especially large in the heads of deep-sea squids. In the mesopelagic ones they allow the squid to conceal itself by counterillumination, matching its own light output to the light coming from above. In bathypelagic squids the vesicles are enormous and probably keep the animals in the dark, where they breed. The function of the epistellar body, lying within the mantle of octopods is still unknown. It may act in the transparent larval stage to trigger the ejection of luminous plankton, which would be a hazard.
对这个小黄斑进行调查后所产生的一系列发现，显示了始于“纯粹好奇心”的研究的价值。这个斑点出现在章鱼的星状神经节上。它被证明是一个封闭的囊，可能是一个腺体。在鱿鱼和乌贼身上寻找它，导致了巨神经纤维的发现。起初它们被认为是静脉，但我们很快表明它们是与喷射推进有关的神经纤维。它们的动作电位、膜和突触已被用于数千项研究，包括那些得出霍奇金-赫胥黎方程的研究。它们一直是现代神经科学许多内容的基础。星状体本身被证明不是一个腺体，而是一个光感受器。类似的感光小泡在深海鱿鱼的头部特别大。在中层带的鱿鱼中，它们使鱿鱼能够通过反光照来隐藏自己，使其自身的光输出与来自上方的光相匹配。在深海带的鱿鱼中，这些小泡非常大，可能使动物处于黑暗中，它们在那里繁殖。位于章鱼外套膜内的星状体的功能仍然未知。它可能在透明的幼虫阶段起作用，触发发光浮游生物的喷射，这可能是一种危险。
