Comparative physiological research on functional specialization in sensory systems

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The purpose of this research is to analyze the primary processes and neural processing in the sensory systems mainly of arthropods, focusing on the following four topics ; (1)dynamic structural changes of receptor cells, (2)neural circuits of sensory systems and their integrating processes, (3)development of plasticities depending on sensory experiences, and (4)integrative interactions between different modalities.A part of the obtained results are as follows : (1)In Drosophila compound eyes, the subrhabdomeric cisternae were involved in opsin transport to the rhabdomeric microvilli, the receptor sites, where two kinds of proteins related to the primary excitation processes were discovered. (2)In butterflies, five types of spectral receptors responding to from red to UV light were found in the compound eyes. In addition, some larval visual interneurons were incorporated into the adult optic lobes, and then functioned as movement detectors. The butterfly had two pairs of extraocular photoreceptive sites in the genitalia. In moths, some of the neurons descending from lateral accessory lobes toward the thoracic ganglia responded to pheromone odor with firing activities related to sexual behaviors. (3)In flies, twelve kinds of proteins and peptides increased in volume depending on visual experiences after emergence. Above one hundred neuropeptides were isolated from 17 species of invertebrates, of which functions were examined. (4)Some interneurons in the honeybee antennal lobes integrated the signals from hygroreceptors ad olfactory receptors housed in different antennal sensilla. The nonspiking giant interneurons in the crayfish brain integrated the sensory inputs from eyes, statocystes and proprioceptors.