DOCSLIB.ORG

Action Potentials in Earthworms

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Action Potentials in Earthworms Experiment AN-4: Action Potentials in Earthworms Background In the resting cell, the permeability of the membrane to potassium (P K) is greater than its permeability to sodium (P Na ). Stimulation, like synaptic activity coming from other nerve cells, can depolarize (make less negative) the cell membrane. Sodium channels in the cell membrane are sensitive to membrane depolarization and they respond by opening, which increases the membrane’s permeability to sodium. If the depolarization reaches or exceeds a certain level (threshold), an action potential is produced. Action potentials develop because of a regenerative, positive feedback cycle. As the cell’s permeability to sodium increases, sodium conductance increases, and increased sodium conductance leads to greater depolarization of the membrane. As depolarization increases, sodium permeability increases again, and more voltage-sensitive channels open. With more channels open, sodium conductance and membrane depolarization increase until the membrane potential reaches the equilibrium potential for sodium. But, before the equilibrium potential for sodium is reached, two other events occur: the voltage- sensitive sodium channels close soon after they open, and the voltage-sensitive potassium channels open. With these channels open, potassium ions leave the cell and cause the membrane to repolarize (hyperpolarize) towards its resting level. This process of membrane hyperpolarization closes the voltage-sensitive potassium channels and re-primes the sodium channels so that they are ready to open once more. This is called the refractory period. Propagation of the action potential from the site of initiation to other locations along the nerve cell is caused by the positive charges in the cell leaking to an adjacent (unstimulated) region and depolarizing that region enough to create an action potential there. In this way, the signal moves from one region of the axon to the adjacent one, and ultimately to the end of the axon. Some axons are myelinated; the axon is covered with a series of Schwann cells, a type of glial cell which electrically insulates the axon. The spaces between adjacent Schwann cells are called the nodes of Ranvier, and they are the only regions along the axon where the membrane is exposed to the extracellular fluid. The myelin insulation prevents the currents associated with action potentials from leaking out of the membrane until they reach a node. So, action potentials take place only at the nodes in myelinated cells. In this laboratory you will record action potentials from the ventral nerve cord of an annelid, the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris. The ventral nerve cord of some invertebrates is a structure analogous to the dorsal nerve cord of vertebrates. The ventral nerve cord of an earthworm contains three giant neurons. The cord has one medial giant neuron with a lateral giant neuron on either side of the medial neuron. Because of their size, the three giant neurons in the earthworm nerve cord can generate action potentials with conduction velocities that permit the worms to have a fast escape reflex. When a large stimulus is delivered to the nerve cord, the neurons respond and action potentials from the medial and lateral neurons are seen. You will examine certain principles associated with neuronal activity: • Neuron viability—determining the viability of the neurons in the nerve cord by observing action potentials from the medial and lateral giant neurons. • Thresholds of neurons—determining the stimulus amplitudes needed to generate action potentials from the medial neurons. Animal Nerve – Earthworm Action Potentials – SetupIXTA AN-4-1 • Conduction velocity—measuring the speed at which an action potential propagates down the medial neuron. • Effects of temperature—observing how cooling affects the conduction velocity of the medial neuron. • Stimulus strength and duration—observing how the stimulus amplitude needed to generate an action potential is related to the duration of the stimulus pulse. Animal Nerve – Earthworm Action Potentials – SetupIXTA AN-4-2 Experiment AN-4: Action Potentials in Earthworms Equipment Required PC or Mac Computer IXTA data acquisition unit USB cable IXTA power supply iWire-B3G input cable NBC-402 Nerve Bath Chamber C-BNC-P2 Stimulator Cable - BNC to Dual pin jack stimulating cable C-ISO-FP5 Recording Cable - 5 Lead Pin jack recording cable Room-Temp & Chilled Ringer's solution Bottles containing 10% ethanol solution IXTA Setup 1. Place the IXTA on the bench, close to the computer. 2. Check Figure T-1-1 in the Tutorial chapter for the location of the USB port and the power socket on the IXTA. 3. Check Figure T-1-2 in the Tutorial chapter for a picture of the IXTA power supply. 4. Use the USB cable to connect the computer to the USB port on the rear panel of the IXTA. 5. Plug the power supply for the IXTA into the electrical outlet. Insert the plug on the end of the power supply cable into the labeled socket on the rear of the IXTA. Use the power switch to turn on the unit. Confirm that the red power light is on. Start the Software 1. Click on the LabScribe shortcut on the computer’s desktop to open the program. If a shortcut is not available, click on the Windows Start menu, move the cursor to All Programs and then to the listing for iWorx. Select LabScribe from the iWorx submenu. The LabScribe Main window will appear as the program opens. 2. On the Main window, pull down the Settings menu and select Load Group. 3. Locate the folder that contains the settings group, IPLMv4Complete.iwxgrp. Select this group and click Open. 4. Pull down the Settings menu again. Select the Action Potential-Worm-LS2 settings file from Animal Nerve. 5. After a short time, LabScribe will appear on the computer screen as configured by the Action Potential-Worm-LS2 settings. Animal Nerve – Earthworm Action Potentials – SetupIXTA AN-4-3 6. For your information, the settings used to configure the recording channels in the LabScribe software and IXTA for this experiment are are programmed on the Channel window of the Preferences Dialog. 7. The settings used to configure the stimulator for this experiment are listed in Table AN-4-S1 . Both groups of settings are programmed on the Channel and Stimulator windows of the Preferences Dialog, which can be viewed by selecting Preferences from the Edit menu on the LabScribe Main window. 8. Once the settings file has been loaded, click the Experiment button on the toolbar to open any of the following documents: • Appendix • Background • Labs • Setup (opens automatically) Table AN-4-S1: Settings on the Stimulator Window of the Preferences Dialog that Configure the iWorx System for Experiment AN-4. Parameter Units/Title Setting Stimulus Mode Pulse Stimulator Start With Recording Time Resolution msec 0.01 Toolbar Step Frequency Hz 1 Toolbar Step Amplitude Volts 0.01 Toolbar Step Time Sec 0.0001 Delay Sec 0.005 Amplitude (Amp) Volt 0.200 Pulses (#pulses) Number 3 Pulse Width (W) msec 0.1 Time Off (T Off) msec 10 Time Off Amplitude Volts 0 Holding Potential (HP) Volts 0 Animal Nerve – Earthworm Action Potentials – SetupIXTA AN-4-4 Earthworm Recording Setup 1. Plug the BNC adapter of the C-BNC-P2 stimulator cable into the stimulator 1 input of the IXTA stimulator ( Figure AN-4-S2 ). The banana plug that goes into the negative (black) stimulator output is identified by a tab, embossed with the letters GND (ground), on that side of the adapter. 2. Locate the C-ISO-B3G recording cable ( Figure AN-4-S1 ) in the iWorx kit and plug it into the iWire 1input on the front of the IXTA ( Figure AN-4-S2 ). Figure AN-4-S1: The C-ISO-B3G recording cable. Figure AN-4-S2: The C-ISO-B3G recording cable and C-BNC-P2 stimulator cables attached to the IXTA. Animal Nerve – Earthworm Action Potentials – SetupIXTA AN-4-5 Figure AN-4-S3: NBC-402 Nerve bath chamber with the C-BNC-P2 and C-ISO-FP5 cables for recording worm action potentials. Electrical Noise Electrical noise is the most common problem associated with the recording of bioelectric signals. It radiates through the air and comes from electrical devices in the lab room or building: lights, power outlets, computers, monitors, and the power supplies. Since the source of power for these devices is 60Hz alternating current (AC), this electrical noise appears as a distorted sine wave with a repeating period of 16.7 milliseconds (msec). There are two major sources of electrical noise: pickup and ground loops. Pickup Pickup is caused by electrical radiation that produces currents in the electrodes and wires leading to the amplifiers in the recording system. Because the resistance in the electrodes is high, small currents produce large voltages that may be greater than the biopotential being recorded. The major ways to reduce pickup are: • Faraday Cage: Put a grounded, screened enclosure, known as a Faraday cage, around the preparation and the electrodes. the enclosure separates the source of the radiation from the electrodes. The person operating the equipment might also be a source of noise, and he or she may need to be grounded. • Shielded Cables: Use shielded cables to carry the signals from the electrodes to the amplifier and the recorder; this puts a protective ground around the wires carrying the bioelectric signal. • Differential Recording: Record using both a positive and a negative recording electrode placed on a nerve or neuron. The noise signals that are equal in magnitude, but opposite in polarity, will cancel each other out and leave a flat baseline. • Short Cables: Use the shortest cables available to reduce the length of wiring exposed to electrical noise. Animal Nerve – Earthworm Action Potentials – SetupIXTA AN-4-6 • Direct Current Equipment: Use equipment, like preamplifiers and illuminators, that are powered by batteries or direct current (DC) transformers.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Of the Lateral Giant Escape Neurons in Crayfish Sensory Activation And
    Sensory Activation and Receptive Field Organization of the Lateral Giant Escape Neurons in Crayfish Yen-Chyi Liu and Jens Herberholz J Neurophysiol 104:675-684, 2010. First published 26 May 2010; doi:10.1152/jn.00391.2010 You might find this additional info useful... This article cites 57 articles, 31 of which can be accessed free at: http://jn.physiology.org/content/104/2/675.full.html#ref-list-1 Updated information and services including high resolution figures, can be found at: http://jn.physiology.org/content/104/2/675.full.html Additional material and information about Journal of Neurophysiology can be found at: http://www.the-aps.org/publications/jn This infomation is current as of February 10, 2012. Downloaded from jn.physiology.org on February 10, 2012 Journal of Neurophysiology publishes original articles on the function of the nervous system. It is published 12 times a year (monthly) by the American Physiological Society, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD 20814-3991. Copyright © 2010 by the American Physiological Society. ISSN: 0022-3077, ESSN: 1522-1598. Visit our website at http://www.the-aps.org/. J Neurophysiol 104: 675–684, 2010. First published May 26, 2010; doi:10.1152/jn.00391.2010. Sensory Activation and Receptive Field Organization of the Lateral Giant Escape Neurons in Crayfish Yen-Chyi Liu1 and Jens Herberholz1,2 1Department of Psychology, 2Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland Submitted 28 April 2010; accepted in final form 26 May 2010 Liu YC, Herberholz J. Sensory activation and receptive field 1999; Herberholz 2007; Krasne and Edwards 2002a; Wine and organization of the lateral giant escape neurons in crayfish.
    [Show full text]
  • The Giant Interneuron Pathways and Escape Reflexes of the Aquatic Oligochaete, Branchiura Sowerbyi Mark Joseph Zoran Iowa State University
    Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Retrospective Theses and Dissertations Dissertations 1987 The giant interneuron pathways and escape reflexes of the aquatic oligochaete, Branchiura sowerbyi Mark Joseph Zoran Iowa State University Follow this and additional works at: https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd Part of the Zoology Commons Recommended Citation Zoran, Mark Joseph, "The giant interneuron pathways and escape reflexes of the aquatic oligochaete, Branchiura sowerbyi " (1987). Retrospective Theses and Dissertations. 8604. https://lib.dr.iastate.edu/rtd/8604 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Iowa State University Capstones, Theses and Dissertations at Iowa State University Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Retrospective Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Iowa State University Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS While the most advanced technology has been used to photograph and reproduce this manuscript, the quality of the reproduction is heavily dependent upon the quality of the material submitted. For example: • Manuscript pages may have indistinct print. In such cases, the best available copy has been filmed. • Manuscripts may not always be complete. In such cases, a note will indicate that it is not possible to obtain missing pages. • Copyrighted material may have been removed from the manuscript. In such cases, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, and charts) are photographed by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand corner and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. Each oversize page is also filmed as one exposure and is available, for an additional charge, as a standard 35mm slide or as a 17"x 23" black and white photographic print.
    [Show full text]
  • Crayfish Escape Behavior and Central Synapses. I. Neural Circuit Exciting Lateral Giant Fiber
    Crayfish Escape Behavior and Central Synapses. I. Neural Circuit Exciting Lateral Giant Fiber ROBERT S. ZUCKER Department of Biological Sciences and Program in the Neurological Sciences, Staraford IJnkersity, Stanford, California 94305 CRAYFISH ARE SOUGHT as food by fish, birds, havior thus habituates to infrequently amphibia, and mammals, as well as man repeatecl stimuli. However, since prolonged (54, p. 460). They commonly escape these stimulation of the lateral giant at frequen- predators by darting backward and away cies up to 1 Hz results in the continued from an enemy on contact, or as the preda- appearance of tail flicks (38, 41), the re- tor approaches. This maneuver is accom- sponse lability must be located in the plished by a sudden flexion of the tail, pathways afferent to the giant- fiber, or in exerting a thrust backward and sometimes that neuron itself. upward against the aquatic medium. A sin- In 1960, Kao (25) recorded slow depolar- gle tail flexion, commonly called a tail flip izing potentials in the lateral giant axon to or flick, often suffices; a more prolonged shocks clelivered to afferent roots. The po- mode of escape, swimming, consists of a tentials could elicit spikes, and were there- periodic sequence of abdominal flexions fore excitatory postsynaptic potentials and extensions. (EPSPs). Krasne (40) showed that on repeti- In 1947, Wiersma (67) showed that stimu- tion of a stimulus these EPSPs waned with lation of any single lateral or medial giant a time course similar to behavioral habitu- fiber of the nerve cord lecl to a ra&l ab- ation. This discovery represented an impor- clominal flexion.
    [Show full text]
  • Habituation and Inhibition of the Crayfish Lateral Giant Fibre Escape Response Jeffrey J
    Jf. exp. Biol. (1975). &». 771-783 'ith 8 figures inted in Great Britain HABITUATION AND INHIBITION OF THE CRAYFISH LATERAL GIANT FIBRE ESCAPE RESPONSE JEFFREY J. WINE Department of Psychology, Stanford University FRANKLIN B. KRASNE AND LIMING CHEN Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles {Received 10 December 1974) SUMMARY 1. Decrement of the lateral giant fibre escape response was studied in intact, restrained, crayfish and in those with the ventral nerve cord transected at the thoracic-abdominal level. 2. Taps (delivered at rates of 1 per 5 min to the abdomen) depressed responsiveness to about 50% of its initial value in 10 trials, for both intact and operated animals. 3. With additional stimulation, responsiveness dropped to near zero for both groups. Recovery was negligible 2 h later, but nearly complete after an additional 24 h rest. 4. Protection against response decrement in this situation was obtained by directly activating the cord giant fibres 30 msec prior to the tactile stimulus. The directly-elicited giant fibre spikes which follow the tactile stimulus do not influence the course of response decrement. 5. The results establish the decrement as centrally mediated habituation, and minimize the role of receptor alterations or descending neuronal influences in the behavioural change. 6. A comparison is made between the properties of habituation and the homosynaptic depression of afferent to interneurone synapses that is pre- sumed to be the physiological mechanism of habituation in this situation. INTRODUCTION Crayfish escape behaviour includes a rapid abdominal flexion mediated by a large pair of command interneurones (the lateral giant fibres, or LGs), which are triggered by phasic tactile input to the abdomen (Wine & Krasne, 1972).
    [Show full text]
  • Voyages Through Weight Space: Network Models of an Escape Reflex in the Leech
    Chapter XI Voyages through Weight Space: Network Models of an Escape Reflex in the Leech SHAWNR. LOCKERYAND TERRENCEJ. SWNOWSKI Co~~iputrirronalNeurobiolog\ Dlborutona Salk Insrrrure for B~olog~colStudies. La Jolla. Californ~a, and The Howard hug he^ Medical ln;r~rure I. Introduction Whether the interest is in discovering the neural basis of behavior or in reverse engineering the nervous system to weal its secrets of computation and control, '1, modeling and simulation play a central role in the process of discovery. Many inter- esting behaviors are subserved by large, nonlinear, and highly interconnected ieural networks that are too complicated to grasp intuitively. Modeling of cqmifex net- works could be used to gain.insight into their biological counterparts. However, such models typically contain many free parameters that cannot be set by the available physiological or anatomical data. One approach to these diGulties is to choose val- ues for these parameters using an optimization algorithq constrained by biological data. This chapter illustrates several different applications of one such algorithm called backpropagation (Rumelhart et al., 1986), a widely used gradient descent technique, to the well-defined neural circuit of the local bending reflex of the leech. After introductory remarks on optimization in network modeling, we review our use of optimized network models to demonstrate the plausibility of distributed process- ing in the local reflex. We next show how varying the assumptions of the modelkd to unexpected local bending networks involving dedicated rather than distributed processing mechanisms. A final section demonsbate~,theuse of optimization to study how the memory for nonassociative conditioning can be stored in distributed Biological Neural Networks 251 Copyrighi @ 1993 by Academic Rers, lnc.
    [Show full text]
  • Sensitization of the Crayfish Lateral Giant Escape Reaction
    The Journal of Neuroscience April 1966, 6(4): 1013-1020 Sensitization of the Crayfish Lateral Giant Escape Reaction Franklin B. Krasne and David L. Glanzmanl Department of Psychology and Brain Research Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, California !30024 Most behavioral reactions that habituate can also be dishabit- leased by sensory neuron spikes by virtue of producing a per- uated by strong stimuli. In the best studied cases, dishabituation sistent decrease in the K+ currents that repolarize the terminal seems to be the result of an independent “sensitization” of the after a spike (Kandel and Schwartz, 1982; Klein et al., 1980). behavioral reaction that compensates for habituation without Recently, evidence has been obtained suggesting that identical necessarily abolishing it. Crayfish lateral giant (LG) neuron- effects, in exaggerated form, mediate classical conditioning of mediated escape reactions are one of the most fully analyzed the reflex (Carew et al., 198 1, 1983; Hawkins et al., 1983; Wal- behavioral reactions that are prone to habituation; however, sen- ters and Byrne, 1983). This possibility gives new importance to sitization/dishabituation of LG escape has not previously been the phenomenon of sensitization and generates a need to de- reported. termine the extent to which the findings regarding locus and Here, the effect of strong AC shocks to head or abdomen on mechanism of sensitization as well as those connecting sensi- the ability of 0.1 msec “test” shocks to sensory roots inner- tization to classical conditioning have generality. vating the tailfan to elicit an LG escape response was examined. A system that holds particular promise for probing the gen- Following single AC shocks, test shock threshold for eliciting erality of the findings from Aplysia is the lateral giant fiber (LG) LG escape reliably fell 5-80% and recovered over 15 min to 1 mediated escapereaction of the crayfish.
    [Show full text]
  • RESEARCH ARTICLE Atypical Properties of Release and Short-Term Depression at a Specialized Nicotinic Synapse in the Mauthner Cell Network
    1560 The Journal of Experimental Biology 214, 1560-1570 © 2011. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd doi:10.1242/jeb.053702 RESEARCH ARTICLE Atypical properties of release and short-term depression at a specialized nicotinic synapse in the Mauthner cell network Simon Gelman*, Charlotte L. Grove and Donald S. Faber Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, NY 10461, USA *Author for correspondence ([email protected]) Accepted 20 January 2011 SUMMARY Many synapses exhibit temporally complex forms of activity-dependent short-term synaptic plasticity. The diversity of these phenomena reflects the evolutionary specialization of synapses within networks. We examined the properties of transmission and plasticity, in vivo, at an identified, specialized axo-axonic nicotinic synapse between the goldfish Mauthner cell and one of its targets, the cranial relay neuron (CRN), using intracellular paired recordings and low frequency (0.33–2Hz) train stimulations. Depression of successive excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), which dominates short-term plasticity, had two components. A fast component reduced the amplitude of EPSP2, to less than 50% of EPSP1. A slow component produced an additional 10–30% of amplitude reduction and developed with a time constant of tens of seconds. The latencies of the later 2+ depressed responses were ~0.1ms longer than that of EPSP1, suggesting a reduced release probability. The Ca chelators EGTA and BAPTA, injected presynaptically, reduced all EPSPs and slowed development of the second component of depression. Interestingly, spike broadening, produced by injecting K+ channel blockers, reduced release, but accelerated the kinetics of the slow component.
    [Show full text]
  • Dopamine Modulates the Lateral Giant Neuron and Serotonergic Facilitation in Crayfish Joshua Scott Itlot W [email protected]
    Marshall University Marshall Digital Scholar Theses, Dissertations and Capstones 1-1-2010 Dopamine Modulates the Lateral Giant Neuron and Serotonergic Facilitation in Crayfish Joshua Scott itloT w [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://mds.marshall.edu/etd Part of the Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, Marine Biology Commons, and the Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons Recommended Citation Titlow, Joshua Scott, "Dopamine Modulates the Lateral Giant Neuron and Serotonergic Facilitation in Crayfish" (2010). Theses, Dissertations and Capstones. Paper 282. This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Marshall Digital Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Marshall Digital Scholar. For more information, please contact [email protected]. DOPAMINE MODULATES THE LATERAL GIANT NEURON AND SEROTONERGIC FACILITATION IN CRAYFISH Thesis submitted to the Graduate College of Marshall University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Biological Science By Joshua Scott Titlow, B.S. Approved by Brian L. Antonsen, Ph.D., Committee Chairperson Elmer M. Price, Ph.D., Committee member Eric R. Blough, Ph.D., Committee member Marshall University December 2010 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis could not have been written without the expertise and guidance of Dr. Brian Antonsen. Thank you for giving me an opportunity in your lab and teaching me how to be a scientist. I am grateful to Dr. Nadja Spitzer for editing this manuscript and being a second mentor. I thank Dr. Eric Blough for his comments on the paper and professional advice, and Dr. Elmer Price for encouragement and thought-provoking conversations.
    [Show full text]
  • Crayfish Escape Behavior and Central Synapses. II. Physiological Mechanisms Underlying Behavioral Habituation
    Crayfish Escape Behavior and Central Synapses. II. Physiological Mechanisms Underlying Behavioral Habituation ROBERT S. ZUCKER Department of Biological Sciences and Program in the Neurological Sciences, Stanford Unillersity, Stanford, California 94305 THE PREVIOUS PAPER (58) OLlth’led thC. CirCUit 33, 36), so the labilities in the circuit effer- responsible for exciting the lateral giant ent from the lateral giant cannot contribute neuron and initiating single tail flips in importantly to habituation of escape be- response to phasic mechanical stimuli to the havior. tail of crayfish. It was shown that the exci- In this paper, various possible sources of tation of some tactile interneurons by tac- lability in the afferent limb of the circuit tile afferents antifacilitates extensively at are explored. It appears that only presynap- low repetition rates. This phenomenon tic depression in the afferent to interneuron must be presumed to contribute to the synapse can account for the habituation. habituation of the response. It is not clear, Furthermore, there is a quantitative corre- however, that this is the only phenomenon spondence between the properties of the in- responsible for generating lability in the terneuronal excitatory postsynaptic poten- behavior. Receptor fatigue, variable proper- tial (EPSP), the nature of the circuit, and ties of the excitable membranes of the lat- the properties of the behavior. eral giant or the tactile interneurons, or labile properties of the circuit efferent to METHODS the giant are additional possibilities. One other point of lability has in fact been Crayfish (Procambarus clarkii) were main- tained and prepared for experiments as de- found. The strength of transmission at the scribed in the previous paper (58).
    [Show full text]
  • Fish Sentience: a Hypothesis Worth Pursuing
    Burgos, José E. (2017) Fish sentience: A hypothesis worth pursuing. Animal Sentience 13(12) DOI: 10.51291/2377-7478.1253 This article has appeared in the journal Animal Sentience, a peer-reviewed journal on animal cognition and feeling. It has been made open access, free for all, by WellBeing International and deposited in the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Animal Sentience 2017.056: Burgos on Woodruff on Fish Feel Fish sentience: A hypothesis worth pursuing Commentary on Woodruff on Fish Feel José E. Burgos University of Guadalajara Abstract: Woodruff’s case for fish sentience is intriguing. Though far from ready for final acceptance, it is worth pursuing. The case is philosophically uncontroversial under functionalism and reductive materialism. It is also highly heuristic, as it raises interesting issues for further investigation, such as the neural causation of behavior, the role of Mauthner cells in conditioned avoidance, and whether operant conditioning is constitutive of fish sentience. Keywords: fish, sentience, pursuit, acceptance, Mauthner cells, neural causation of behavior, C- start reflex, Pavlovian conditioning, operant conditioning, functionalism, reductive materialism José E. Burgos, Professor in the Center for Behavioral Studies and Investigations, University of Guadalajara, does research on neural network modelling of learning and philosophy of psychology. He is editor of Behavior and Philosophy. www.ceic.cucba.udg.mx/Investigacion/personal- investigador?id=4 Woodruff (2017) makes a case for the hypothesis (a term he repeatedly uses, to the benefit of his case) that certain fish (the Actinopterygii class, which includes the Teleostei infraclass and forms over 90% of living fish) could have phenomenal consciousness (subjective qualitative experiences), or “sentience” for short.
    [Show full text]
  • Non-Invasive Recording of Giant Nerve Fiber Action Potentials from Freely Moving Oligochaetes
    Chapter 2 Non-invasive Recording of Giant Nerve Fiber Action Potentials from Freely Moving Oligochaetes Charlie Drewes Department of Zoology and Genetics Iowa State University Ames, Iowa 50011 (515) 294-8061 [email protected] Charlie received his B.A. from Augustana College (South Dakota) and Ph.D. from Michigan State University. He is currently a Professor of Zoology and Genetics at Iowa State University. His research training and interests are in the areas of invertebrate neurophysiology and comparative physiology. He and his research students have extensively investigated the neurobiology of escape reflex behaviors in freshwater and terrestrial oligochaetes. On campus, Charlie teaches courses in neurophysiology, invertebrate biology, and bioethics. During summers, he instructs at Iowa Lakeside Laboratory where he leads workshops in freshwater biology for middle school, high school, and community college biology teachers. Throughout the year he is heavily involved in developing and sharing hands-on activities for biology education at all levels. Reprinted From: Drewes, C. 1999. Non-invasive recording of giant nerve fiber action potentials from freely moving oligochaetes. Pages 45-62, in Tested studies for laboratory teaching, Volume 20 (S. J. Karcher, Editor). Proceedings of the 20th Workshop/Conference of the Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE), 399 pages. - Copyright policy: http://www.zoo.utoronto.ca/able/volumes/copyright.htm Although the laboratory exercises in ABLE proceedings volumes have been tested and due consideration has been given to safety, individuals performing these exercises must assume all responsibility for risk. The Association for Biology Laboratory Education (ABLE) disclaims any liability with regards to safety in connection with the use of the exercises in its proceedings volumes.
    [Show full text]
  • Mechanisms That Underlie Experience-Dependent Assembly of Neural Circuits
    Mechanisms that underlie experience-dependent assembly of neural circuits by Ann Marie Macara A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology) in the University of Michigan 2016 Doctoral Committee: Associate Professor Bing Ye, Co-Chair Professor Kenneth M. Cadigan, Co-Chair Associate Professor Catherine A. Collins Professor John Y. Kuwada Professor Suzanne Moenter DEDICATION To all my animals, past and present. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation was made possible through the collaborations between many people. I would first like to thank my research advisor, Dr. Bing Ye, for allowing me the opportunity to continue my PhD training in his laboratory at the Life Sciences Institute in the University of Michigan. Under his instruction, my research has been elevated to greater levels. I would like to thank my co-advisor, Dr. Ken Cadigan, for all of his support and advice on not only my research but also providing me with valuable insights into navigating graduate school. I would also like to thank my teaching mentor Dr. Tim McKay whose enthusiasm for teaching has greatly influenced my career path. You never really know where you will find a mentor, and I found mine in the Reptiles and Amphibian Division at the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Gregory Schneider has been my colleague, friend and advocate; I would like to thank him for all of his help over the past 3 years. I would also like to thank my committee members Drs. Cathy Collins and John Kuwada, who recently joined my committee and Dr.
    [Show full text]