Identification of Neurones in the Leech Through Local Ionic Manipulations

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Abstract
The identification of neurones which generate and control specific animal movements can typically be made with conventional intracellular recording techniques during the expression of the movement pattern. Neurones whose membrane potentials are highly correlated to the patterns under investigation are potentially part of the pattern-controlling system. Further searches may then be made to find the pre-synaptic and postsynaptic cells. Such neuronal circuits are now known for several invertebrates (Friesen & Stent, 1978; Delcomyn, 1980; Kristan, 1980). However, a serious drawback to these search procedures is that many time-consuming trial and error experiments are required, in which hundreds, or even thousands of candidate cells must be impaled with microelectrodes.