Physiological and morphological study on neural processing of humidity, temperature and other model sensory information in insect brain.

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We have already elucidated the primary process of hygroreceptors, the response characteristics of thermal (cold) receptors and the response spectra of antennal olfactory receptors in cockroach, Periplaneta americana. Furthermore, we have investigated the hygro- and thermal information processing in the antennal lobe within the deutocerebrum of cockroach Periplaneta and honeybee Apis, showing that functional and morphological characteristics of some interneurons in the antennal lobe which are involved in neural processing of hygro- and thermal information. In this study we have identified the glomeruli where the axons of the hygro- or themoreceptors terminated and which the projection interneurons innervated, in order to elucidate the sites of integration of the hygro- and thermal information with other modal information from antennal receptors.1. The receptor axons were ionophoritically stained by cobalt from the sensilla one of which contained twe hygroreceptors, one cold receptor and the other cell and the other of which contained one cold receptor and a few olfactory receptor cells. An axon of the receptor cell in the hygro- and thermoreceptive sensillum and an axon of the receptor cells in the thermoreceptive and olfactory sensillum terminated in glomeruli which located near a dorsal lobe. Twe axons of the receptors in the hygro- and themoreceptive sensilla also terminated in glomeruli in the region. However, terminals of other axons were divergent. Therefore we concluded that the axons of the hygroreceptors and thermoreceptors terminated in the special glomeruli near the dorsal lobe.2. The projection interneurons which responded to humidity or temperature changes had arborizations in glomeruli which located near the dorsal lobe. However we could not whether these glomeruli were the same glomeruli where the axons of the cold receptors or hygroreceptors terminated.