Dickinson P S, Mecsas C, Marder E
Biology Department, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.
Nature. 1990 Mar 8;344(6262):155-8. doi: 10.1038/344155a0.
Animals make many different movements as circumstances dictate. These movements often involve the coordination of several neural networks, the output of which can be changed by modulatory substances. Here we report that the neuropeptide red pigment concentrating hormone modulates the interactions between two rhythmic pattern-generating networks in the lobster stomatogastric nervous system. Red pigment concentrating hormone markedly enhances the amplitude of synaptic interactions between elements of two pattern-generating networks--the cardiac sac and the gastric mill. Consequently, two networks operating under some circumstances virtually independently can be fused into one functional unit operating differently from either of the two original networks. These results show how a neuropeptide can alter the functional configuration of a neural network so that widely disparate outputs can be produced by the same neurons.
动物会根据环境的要求做出许多不同的动作。这些动作通常涉及多个神经网络的协调，其输出可由调节物质改变。在此我们报告，神经肽红色素聚集激素调节龙虾口胃神经系统中两个节律性模式生成网络之间的相互作用。红色素聚集激素显著增强了两个模式生成网络——心囊和胃磨——元件之间突触相互作用的幅度。因此，在某些情况下几乎独立运作的两个网络可以融合成一个功能单元，其运作方式与两个原始网络中的任何一个都不同。这些结果表明神经肽如何能够改变神经网络的功能配置，从而使相同的神经元能够产生广泛不同的输出。
