RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Feeding-Mediated Distention Inhibits Swimming in the Medicinal Leech
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 9753
OP 9761
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1487-10.2010
VO 30
IS 29
A1 Gaudry, Quentin
A1 Kristan, William B.
YR 2010
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/30/29/9753.abstract
AB An animal's response to a stimulus depends on many factors such as age, hormonal state, experience, and its behavioral state. For example, an animal may suppress a behavior that is inappropriate or incompatible with its current state. In this study, we show that, as a medicinal leech feeds, the distention that it incurs inhibits its expression of swimming. Distention slows the swimming pattern and decreases the number of swim cycles elicited by a test electrical stimulation; large distentions inhibit swimming altogether. We have previously shown that the ingestive phase of feeding inhibits behaviors by presynaptic inhibition of mechanosensory neurons. Distention has its effects downstream (e.g., gating and central pattern generating interneurons) from these sensory neurons and thus represents a novel mechanism for choosing between conflicting behaviors during feeding. Because removing the leech's gut surgically did not eliminate the effects of body distention, we conclude that the receptors mediating the distention-induced suppression of swimming are likely to be located in the animal's body wall. Together with previous findings, these new data show that leeches rely on two different decision-making networks to ensure that a biologically important behavior is not disrupted by other behaviors.