The vascular circulation in the brain, optic lobes and thoracic ganglia of the crabCarcinus

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Abstract
Ink injected into the blood system of the crab reveals a rich capillary system within all the central ganglia. The capillaries link afferent blood vessels with efferent vessels in such a way that the afferent vessels carry the blood deep into the neuropile and the capillaries take the blood through the synaptic areas and out to the surface efferents. The efferent vessels carry blood through the ganglion sheath and into the haemocoele. The branches of the capillary system in the structured neuropile areas of the optic lobe are regularly spaced and proliferation occurs at known synaptic areas. Capillaries in the diffuse brain neuropile are not geometrically arranged. Blood flows initially to the synaptic regions and thence past the nerve somata. With the exception of the retinula cell axons, main nerve bundles and axon chiasmata are poorly supplied with capillary systems. The demonstrated association of an extensive blood supply with synaptic areas in the optic lobe is correlated with previous experimental findings that integrated visual reflexes fail very shortly after interruption of the blood supply but primary receptor cell activity is relatively unaffected.

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