Influence of Input from the Forewtng Stretch Receptors on Motoneurones in Flying Locusts

1. Previous studies on the forewing stretch receptors (FSRs) of locusts have suggested that feedback from these receptors during flight contributes to the excitation of depressor motoneurones and reduces the duration of depolarizations in elevator motoneurones. We have investigated these proposals by measuring the timing of FSR activity relative to depressor activity and by examining the effects of stimulating the FSRs on the membrane potential oscillations in flight motoneurones. 2. Activity in the FSRs was recorded in tethered intact animals flying in a windstream and in preparations that allowed intracellular recordings from motoneurones during flight activity. The timing of FSR activity was similar in both preparations. In most animals we observed that at normal wingbeat frequencies (about 20 Hz) the activity in the FSRs commenced after the onset of activity in the wing depressor muscles. As wingbeat frequency declined there was a progressive advance of FSR activity relative to depressor activity. Most of the spikes in each burst of FSR activity occurred during the time that the membrane potential in depressor motoneurones was repolarizing. 3. Electrical stimulation of the FSRs timed to follow the onset of depressor activity slowed the rate of repolarization, decreased the peak hyperpolarization and increased the rate of the following depolarization in depressor motoneurones. In elevator motoneurones, the same pattern of FSR stimulation produced an additional excitatory input during the depolarization phase and, at low wingbeat frequencies, reduced the duration of the peak depolarizations. The reduction in the duration of the peak depolarization in elevator motoneurones was not strongly correlated to the reduction in cycle period. 4. We propose that the primary reason why input from the FSRs increases wingbeat frequency is because this input reduces the degree of hyperpolarization in depressor neurones and thus promotes an earlier onset of the next depolarization in these neurones.