Modulation of Neural Circuits in Crustacea

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Abstract
Recent research has shown that neuromodulators play important roles in shaping simple behaviors. They act at many different sites within the animal in a coordinated fashion, modulating the motor circuits in the central nervous system, altering motoneuron excitability, and modulating muscle response to motoneuron input. Within the central circuits that co-ordinate simple movements, neuromodulators play a dramatic sculpting role, changing the cells that participate in the circuit, altering their intrinsic properties, and affecting the strength of synaptic interactions that form the “wiring diagram” of the circuit. As a result, they are able to shape a family of related circuits out of a single anatomically identified network, each driving a unique variant on the basic motor theme. Examples of these actions from the Crustacea are described in this paper, focussing on the modulation of posture in the lobster, and on modulation of rhythmic motor programs for stomach movements in the stomatogastric ganglion of lobsters and crabs.

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