The cerebral-buccal interneurons (CBIs) in Aplysia are a group of inter-ganglionic projection neurons that regulate feeding motor programs. In this study, electrophysiological and immunocytological methods were used to identify a previously uncharacterized CBI, designated CBI-11. CBI-11 is a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-immunoreactive neuron located in the G cluster of the cerebral ganglion. ...

Citation: Berg RW (2018) Commentary: Synaptic Excitation in Spinal Motoneurons Alternates with Synaptic Inhibition and Is Balanced by Outward Rectification during Rhythmic Motor Network Activity. Front. Neural Circuits 12:1. doi: 10.3389/fncir.2018.00001 Commentary: Synaptic Excitation in Spinal Motoneurons Alternates with Synaptic Inhibition and Is Balanced by Outward Rectification during Rhyt...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Better understanding of intrinsic control mechanisms of colonic motility will lead to better treatment options for colonic dysmotility. The aim was to investigate neurogenic and myogenic control mechanisms underlying pan-colonic motor patterns. METHODS Analysis of in vitro video recordings of whole rat colon motility was used to explore motor patterns and their spatiotempo...

The molecular mechanisms by which dietary fatty acids are absorbed by the intestine, and the way in which the process is regulated are poorly understood. In a genetic screen for mutations affecting fat accumulation in the intestine of Caenorhabditis elegans, nematode worms, we have isolated mutations in the aex-5 gene, which encodes a Kex2/subtilisin-family, Ca2+-sensitive proprotein convertase...

Generating movement rhythms is known to involve a network of distributed brain regions associated with motor planning, control, execution, and perception of timing for the repertoire of motor actions. What brain areas are bound in the network and how the network activity is modulated by rhythmic complexity have not been completely explored. To contribute to answering these questions, we designe...

Several motor networks have now been found to be multifunctional, in which one group of neurons participates in the generation of multiple behavioral motor programs. Not surprisingly, the behaviors involved are frequently closely related, often using the same or similar muscle groups. Here we describe an interneuronal network in the marine mollusk Tritonia diomedea that is involved in producing...

Recent transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in human demonstrated that while performing a unilateral movement, activity of primary motor cortex (M1) ipsilateral to the movement side contributes to motor performance. been well known that the modulations of ipsilateral M1 (ipsi-M1) excitability are dependent on type of motor task and dif...

In adult female crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus), rhythmic movements of ovipositor valves are produced by contractions of a set of ovipositor muscles that mediate egg-laying behavior. Recordings from implanted wire electrodes in the ovipositor muscles of freely moving crickets revealed sequential changes in the temporal pattern of motor activity that corresponded to shifts between behavioral step...

Humans perform rhythmic, locomotor movements with the arms and legs every day. Studies using reflexes to probe the functional role of the CNS suggest that spinal circuits are an important part of the neural control system for rhythmic arm cycling and walking. Here, by studying motor evoked potentials (MEPs) in response to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the motor cortex, and H-reflex...

OBJECTIVES To test the hypotheses that Parkinson's disease can differentially produce deficits in voluntary and rhythmic jaw movements, which involve different neuronal circuits, and that levodopa treatment improves specific components of the motor deficit. METHODS Patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease and control subjects were tested on a series of jaw motor tasks that included simple...