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Interaction between descending input and thoracic reflexes for joint coordination in cockroach: I. Descending influence on thoracic sensory reflexes

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Abstract

Tethered cockroaches turn from unilateral antennal contact using asymmetrical movements of mesothoracic (T2) legs (Mu and Ritzmann in J Comp Physiol A 191:1037–1054, 2005). During the turn, the leg on the inside of the turn (the inside T2 leg) has distinctly different motor patterns from those in straight walking. One possible neural mechanism for the transformation from walking to inside leg turning could be that the descending commands alter a few critical reflexes that start a cascade of physical changes in leg movement or posture, leading to further alterations. This hypothesis has two implications: first, the descending activities must be able to influence thoracic reflexes. Second, one should be able to initiate the turning motor pattern without descending signals by mimicking a point farther down in the reflex cascade. We addressed the first implication in this paper by experiments on chordotonal organ reflexes. The activity of depressor muscle (Ds) and slow extensor tibia muscle (SETi) was excited and inhibited by stretching and relaxing the femoral chordotonal organ. However, the Ds responses were altered after eliminating the descending activity, while the SETi responses remain similar. The inhibition to Ds activity by stretching the coxal chordotonal organ was also altered after eliminating the descending activity.

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Abbreviations

CCO:

Coxal chordotonal organ

CoCL:

Circumoesophageal connectives lesion

CTr:

Coxa-trochanter

Ds:

Depressor trochanter neuron

EMG:

Electromyogram

FCO:

Femoral chordotonal organ

FTi:

Femur–tibia

NL:

Neck lesion

SETi:

Slow extensor tibia neuron

SOG:

Suboesophageal ganglion

T2:

Mesothoracic

ThC:

Thorax–coxa

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Acknowledgments

We thank Dr. Hillel Chiel, Dr. Mark Willis, Dr. Roger Quinn, Dr. Debra Wood and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on this manuscript, and Allan Pollack for his technical support. This material is based upon the work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0516587 and the AFOSR under grant FA9550-07-1-0149 both to R. E. R.

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  1. Department of Biology, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, Cleveland, OH, 44106-7080, USA

    Laiyong Mu & Roy E. Ritzmann

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  1. Laiyong Mu
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  2. Roy E. Ritzmann
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Correspondence to Laiyong Mu.

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Mu, L., Ritzmann, R.E. Interaction between descending input and thoracic reflexes for joint coordination in cockroach: I. Descending influence on thoracic sensory reflexes. J Comp Physiol A 194, 283–298 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-007-0307-x

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