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Science 4 August 1972:
Vol. 177. no. 4047, pp. 438 - 441
DOI: 10.1126/science.177.4047.438
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Articles

Photoreception in a Barnacle: Electrophysiology of the Shadow Reflex Pathway in Balanus cariosus

Ronald Millecchia 1 and G. Frank Gwilliam 2

1 Department of Physiology and Biophysics, West Virginia University Medical Center, Morgantown 26506
2 Biology Department, Reed College, Portland, Oregon 97202

The photoreceptors in the median ocellus of the rock barnacle depolarize when illuminated. This depolarization spreads passively to the axon terminals in the supraesophageal ganglion. A small number of cells in the supraesophageal ganglion hyperpolarize when the median ocellus is illuminated and depolarize when it is shadowed. Nerve impulses are superimposed on the slow depolarization of the ganglion cells. Impulse activity in response to shadowing the median ocellus is recorded in a few fibers of the circumesophageal connectives. Picrotoxin blocks this shadow-induced activity. A model of the shadow reflex pathway is presented.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Signal Transmission from Photoreceptors to Ganglion Cells in the Visual System of the Giant Barnacle.
S. Ozawa, S. Hagiwara, K. Nicolaysen, and A. E. Stuart (1976)
Cold Spring Harb Symp Quant Biol 40, 563-570
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)