Morphology and physiological properties of interneurons in the olfactory midbrain of the crayfish

Abstract

1. Intracellular recording and staining was used to characterize neurons in the crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) brain that respond to chemical stimuli applied to the major olfactory organs, the antennules. 2. Two distinct morphological types of neurons that have major projections in the olfactory lobes (OLs) of the brain were characterized anatomically (Figs. 1, 2, 3; Table 2) and physiologically (Figs. 4, 5, 6; Table 3). 3. Different individual neurons of one type, with similar 'tree-like' projections in the OLs, have somata distributed in at least 5 different cell body clusters of the brain (Fig. 3) and link different subsets of neuropilar lobes through their distributed arbors (Fig. 1, Table 2). 4. Excitatory, inhibitory and mixed responses were recorded in different neurons when odorant mixtures or individual components of these mixtures were applied to the antennules. Response spectra to individual components were broad and overlapping, but not identical in the neurons tested (Fig. 4; Table 3). Mixture interactions appear to be additive in most of the neurons that we tested, but evidence was obtained for mixture suppression in several cases (Fig. 6). 5. Most of the neurons recorded in this study responded only to stimulation of the ipsilateral antennule (Fig. 5), although subthreshold activity to stimuli applied contralaterally was recorded in several neurons that were strongly excited by ipsilateral stimuli. 6. Chemoresponsive neurons without projections in OL's that have all of their branches confined to the brain, or that project an axon in the circumesophageal connective, are described (Fig. 7).