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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Intracellular Recording, Sensory Field Mapping, and Culturing Identified Neurons in the Leech, Hirudo medicinalis
Published on: November 4, 2013
Motor neural networks in the leech
1Instituto de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Neurociencias (IFIBYNE, UBA-CONICET) and Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires (FBMC, FCEN, UBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract:
Leeches display robust motor patterns and exhibit a relatively simple nervous system where neurons are unambiguously identified. This brief article focuses on Hirudo verbana and summarizes how research in this organism has contributed to insights in the field of motor control, where networks have been studied from population down to individual neuron perspectives.

