title: Neuropeptide fusion of two motor-pattern generator circuits.
abstract: Animals make many different movements as circumstances dictate. These movements often involve the coordination of several neural networks, the output of which can be changed by modulatory substances. Here we report that the neuropeptide red pigment concentrating hormone modulates the interactions between two rhythmic pattern-generating networks in the lobster stomatogastric nervous system. Red pigment concentrating hormone markedly enhances the amplitude of synaptic interactions between elements of two pattern-generating networks--the cardiac sac and the gastric mill. Consequently, two networks operating under some circumstances virtually independently can be fused into one functional unit operating differently from either of the two original networks. These results show how a neuropeptide can alter the functional configuration of a neural network so that widely disparate outputs can be produced by the same neurons.
authors.affiliation: Biology Department, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine.
authors.forename: P S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Dickinson
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mecsas
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Marder
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D005724:Ganglia / Q000502:physiology*; D007447:Invertebrate Hormones / Q000502:physiology*; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D008121:Nephropidae; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D009479:Neuropeptides / Q000502:physiology*; D009842:Oligopeptides / Q000502:physiology*; D011761:Pyrrolidonecarboxylic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives
chemical_list: D007447:Invertebrate Hormones; D009479:Neuropeptides; D009842:Oligopeptides; C022059:red pigment-concentrating hormone; D011761:Pyrrolidonecarboxylic Acid