Lehmkuhl Andrew M, Muthusamy Arunkumar, Wagenaar Daniel A
University of Cincinnati, Department of Biological Sciences, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA.
University of Cincinnati, Department of Biological Sciences, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA
J Exp Biol. 2018 Feb 22;221(Pt 4):jeb171728. doi: 10.1242/jeb.171728.
Sensitivity to water waves is a key modality by which aquatic predators can detect and localize their prey. For one such predator - the medicinal leech, - behavioral responses to visual and mechanical cues from water waves are well documented. Here, we quantitatively characterized the response patterns of a multisensory interneuron, the S cell, to mechanically and visually cued water waves. As a function of frequency, the response profile of the S cell replicated key features of the behavioral prey localization profile in both visual and mechanical modalities. In terms of overall firing rate, the S cell response was not direction selective, and although the direction of spike propagation within the S cell system did follow the direction of wave propagation under certain circumstances, it is unlikely that downstream neuronal targets can use this information. Accordingly, we propose a role for the S cell in the detection of waves but not in the localization of their source. We demonstrated that neither the head brain nor the tail brain are required for the S cell to respond to visually cued water waves.
对水波的敏感性是水生捕食者能够探测和定位猎物的一种关键方式。对于一种这样的捕食者——医用水蛭，其对水波的视觉和机械线索的行为反应已有充分记录。在这里，我们定量地描述了一种多感觉中间神经元——S细胞对机械和视觉提示的水波的反应模式。作为频率的函数，S细胞的反应谱在视觉和机械两种模式下都复制了行为猎物定位谱的关键特征。就总体放电率而言，S细胞的反应没有方向选择性，并且尽管在某些情况下S细胞系统内的尖峰传播方向确实遵循波的传播方向，但下游神经元靶点不太可能利用这一信息。因此，我们提出S细胞在探测水波方面发挥作用，但在定位其来源方面不起作用。我们证明，S细胞对视觉提示的水波做出反应既不需要头部神经节也不需要尾部神经节。
