Interganglionic dendrites constitute an output pathway from the procerebrum of the snail Achatina fulica

Abstract

The procerebrum is an olfactory processing region that occupies approximately one-third of the total brain area in pulmonate gastropod molluscs. It has many unusual features, including a development separate from the rest of the brain and the absence of axons belonging to its intrinsic neurons. We have investigated the input and output pathways of the procerebrum in the terrestrial snail Achatina fulica by using hexamminecobalt chloride as a selective label. Both the tentacle nerve and the cerebropedal connective nerve contribute to a fine neural plexus that is distributed throughout the neuropile region of the procerebrum. The fibers from the tentacle nerve are predominantly presynaptic, whereas those from the cerebropedal connective are predominantly postsynaptic. The postsynaptic fibers (dendrites) were traced to two groups of nerve cells (total number, 20-25) near the ventral surface of the ipsilateral pedal ganglion. No evidence was obtained for any other numerically significant output pathway from the procerebrum. Since locomotion is known to be controlled by the pedal ganglion, these results provide an anatomical substrate for the strong influence of olfaction on locomotor behavior in snails. The pathway is unusual in that the dendrites are interganglionic and can be as long as 5 mm.