Modulation of aerial respiratory behaviour in a pond snail.
Aerial respiratory in Lymnaea is driven by a three-neuron CPG whose sufficiency and necessity has been directly demonstrated. While this CPG is 'hard-wired' it displays a tremendous amount of plasticity. That is, it is possible by employing specific training procedures to alter how it functions in a specific hypoxic environment. Thus, it is possible to study directly the causal mechanisms of long-term memory formation, forgetting, and modulation of the memory at a single cell level. Thus, it is possible to use a relatively simple three-neuron CPG to study not only important questions concerning regulation of important homeostatic mechanisms but to also use it to study how learning and non-declarative memory are mediated at a cellular level.
Lukowiak
Ken
K
Hotchkiss Brain Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. lukowiak@ucalgary.ca
Martens
Kara
K
Orr
Mike
M
Parvez
Kashif
K
Rosenegger
David
D
Sangha
Susan
S
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D000860:Hypoxia; D007858:Learning / Q000502:physiology; D008195:Lymnaea / Q000502:physiology*; D023421:Models, Animal; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000378:metabolism; D012119:Respiration; D012125:Respiratory Center / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*
D009569:Nitric Oxide