Crayfish extraretinal photoreception. I. Behavioral and motorneuronal responses to abdominal illumination

Stimulation of blinded and sighted crayfish with ventrally directed light evokes a slow tail flexion response or a tail flexion accompanied by backward walking. The response latencies and durations of sighted animals are shorter than those of blinded animals, which indicates that visual inputs can speed a response which can be released by extraretinal photoreceptors alone. Recordings from electrodes implanted in intact, freely behaving animals demonstrate that ventral illumination tonically excites abdominal postural flexor motoneurones. The motoneurone discharge occurs first in caudal segments and then spreads rostrally, as does abdominal flexion around each segmental joint. Illumination of individual abdominal ganglia (A2-A5) tonically excites a similar flexor motoneurone response in cells of the stimulated ganglion and more caudal ganglia. Swimmeret motoneurones are also tonically excited by this stimulus. These responses can be evoked in isolated abdominal nerve cords, indicating that extraretinal photoreceptors present in these ganglia activate motor circuits that are local to the abdomen. Stimulation of A6 excites the caudal photoreceptor neurones, but only excites flexor motoneurones if the abdominal ventral nerve cord is connected to the rostral part of the CNS. The motoneurones respond with repeated bursts of activity that long outlast the stimulus or the initial high-frequency burst of the caudal photoreceptor neurones. These motoneurone responses are similar to those evoked by stimulation of command fibres that also evoke backward walking (Kovac, 1974a).