From synapses to behavior: Development of a sensory‐motor circuit in the leech

The development of neuronal circuits has been advanced greatly by the use of imaging techniques that reveal the activity of neurons during the period when they are constructing synapses and forming circuits. This review focuses on experiments performed in leech embryos to characterize the developmen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Developmental neurobiology (Hoboken, N.J.) N.J.), 2008-05, Vol.68 (6), p.779-787
Main Authors: Marin‐Burgin, Antonia, Kristan, William B., French, Kathleen A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Behavior, Animal - physiology
dye‐coupling
FRET‐voltage‐sensitive dyes
Hirudinea
imaging
invertebrate
Leeches - anatomy & histology
Leeches - growth & development
networks
Neural Pathways - growth & development
Neural Pathways - physiology
Neurons - cytology
Neurons - physiology
Synapses - physiology
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Summary:The development of neuronal circuits has been advanced greatly by the use of imaging techniques that reveal the activity of neurons during the period when they are constructing synapses and forming circuits. This review focuses on experiments performed in leech embryos to characterize the development of a neuronal circuit that produces a simple segmental behavior called “local bending.” The experiments combined electrophysiology, anatomy, and FRET‐based voltage‐sensitive dyes (VSDs). The VSDs offered two major advantages in these experiments: they allowed us to record simultaneously the activity of many neurons, and unlike other imaging techniques, they revealed inhibition as well as excitation. The results indicated that connections within the circuit are formed in a predictable sequence: initially neurons in the circuit are connected by electrical synapses, forming a network that itself generates an embryonic behavior and prefigures the adult circuit; later chemical synapses, including inhibitory connections, appear, “sculpting” the circuit to generate a different, mature behavior. In this developmental process, some of the electrical connections are completely replaced by chemical synapses, others are maintained into adulthood, and still others persist and share their targets with chemical synaptic connections. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2008
ISSN:1932-8451
1932-846X
DOI:10.1002/dneu.20551