Quantification of responses from proprioceptive neurons in the limbs of the crab,Cancer magister

✍ Scribed by Cooper, Robin Lewis; Hartman, H. Bernard

• Book ID: 101226926
• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1999
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 194 KB
• Volume: 284
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-104X
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1097-010x(19991101)284:6<629::aid-jez4>3.0.co;2-l

✦ Synopsis

In the limbs of crustaceans, proprioception is monitored by chordotonal organs. One in particular, MC1, is arranged in a manner that is accessible for single unit recording of primary sensory neurons while simulating joint movement. The movement-sensitive cells are of two types, those sensitive to relaxation or to elongation of the chordotonal strand which corresponds to flexion or extension of the meropodite-carpopodite joint, respectively. A statistical method for the quantification of these movement-sensitive proprioceptive neuronal responses was implemented. This statistical index, eta 2 , should allow neuronal responses recorded in different laboratories to be easily and quantitatively compared. In addition, an eta 2 value can be assigned to individual cells which represents a cell's consistency and degree to which the response is related to the stimulus. We found some cells to have a high eta 2 and to be consistent in their activity while other cells had a high degree of variability with low eta 2 values.