Comparison of buccal motor programs produced by stimulation of the two major
esophageal nerve branches. A: Motor programs produced by
stimulation (3-msec pulses, 2 Hz) of En1. Extracellular
recordings from buccal nerve 1 (Bn1) were used to monitor the protraction
phase of motor programs (Neustadter et al.
2002; duration of protraction indicated by the white bar below
recordings). Intracellular recording from the multifunctional neuron B4
provided a monitor of the retraction phase (duration of retraction indicated
by gray bar below recordings). Note that retraction phase duration
corresponds to the entire period of B/4 depolarization, which typically
outlasts its period of firing. Intracellular recording from B8 served as a
monitor of radula closure. In A1, the closure phase is coincident with
protraction, indicative of a fictive egestive-like program. A2 illustrates
an intermediate program in which closure is not preferentially associated
with either protraction or retraction (see Materials and Methods for
classification algorithm). B: Group data (41 programs from five
preparations) showed that the motor programs produced by En1
stimulation were biased toward the egestive-like classification.
C: Motor programs produced by stimulation of
En2. In C1, the closure phase is coincident with protraction,
indicative of a fictive egestive-like program. C2 illustrates an
intermediate program in which closure is not preferentially associated with
either protraction or retraction. In C3, closure was predominantly
associated with retraction, indicative of an ingestive-like program. Group
data for En2 stimulation (48 programs from six preparations) are
shown in B (right side). No significant bias toward any of the three program
classifications was detected.