title: The complexity of small circuits: the stomatogastric nervous system.
abstract: The crustacean stomatogastric nervous system is a long-standing test bed for studies of circuit dynamics and neuromodulation. We give a brief update on the most recent work on this system, with an emphasis on the broader implications for understanding neural circuits. In particular, we focus on new findings underlining that different levels of dynamics taking place at different time scales all interact in multiple ways. Dynamics due to synaptic and intrinsic neuronal properties, neuromodulation, and long-term gene expression-dependent regulation are not independent, but influence each other. Extensive research on the stomatogastric system shows that these dynamic interactions convey robustness to circuit operation, while facilitating the flexibility of producing multiple circuit outputs.
authors.affiliation: Federated Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd, Newark, NJ 07102, United States.
authors.forename: Nelly
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Daur
authors.affiliation: Federated Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd, Newark, NJ 07102, United States.
authors.forename: Farzan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Nadim
authors.affiliation: Federated Department of Biological Sciences, New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University, 323 Martin Luther King Blvd, Newark, NJ 07102, United States. Electronic address: bucher@njit.edu.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bucher
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003445:Crustacea / Q000502:physiology*; D017952:Ganglia, Invertebrate; D009424:Nervous System Physiological Phenomena; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology