The ventral photoreceptors of Limulus polyph,mus are unipolar cells with large, ellipsoidal somas located long both "lateral olfactory nerves." As a consequence of their size and location, the cells are easily impaled with microelectrodes. The cells have an average resting potential of --48 my. The resting potential is a function of the external concentration of K. When the cell is illuminated, it gives rise to the typical "receptor potential" seen in most invertebrate photoreceptors which consists of a transient phase followed by a maintained phase of depolarization. The amplitude of the transient phase depends on both the state of adaptation of the cell and the intensity of the illumination, while the amplitude of the maintained phase depends only on the intensity of the illumination. The over-all size of the receptor potential depends on the external concentration of Na, e.g. in sodium-free seawater the receptor potential is markedly reduced, but not abolished. On the other hand lowering the Ca concentration produces a marked enhancement of both components of the response, but predominantly of the steady-state component. Slow potential fluctuations are seen in the dark-adapted cell when it is illuminated with a low intensity light. A spike-like regenerative process can be evoked by either the receptor potential or a current applied via a microelectrode. No evidence of impulse activity has been found in the axons of these cells. The ventral photoreceptor cell has many properties in common with a variety of retinular cells and therefore should serve as a convenient model of the primary receptor cell in many invertebrate eyes. I N T R O D U C T I O NT h e ionic basis for receptor potentials in photoreceptors has been investigated in only a few preparations, namely, the cells in the o m m a t i d i a of the horseshoe c r a b (Kikuchi, Naito, and T a n a k a , 1962), the retinular cells of the crayfish (Eguchi, 1965), and the retinular cells of the h o n e y b e e d r o n e (Fulpius and B a u m a n n , 1969). T h e s e preparations all have the disadvantages of being quite small and e m b e d d e d in a meshwork of pigment-containing cells and glial cells. In the studies cited above it was shown that sodium is ira3Io

The ventral photoreceptor cells of Limulus polyphemus resemble the retinular cells of the lateral eyes both in electrical behavior and in morphology. Because of the great size of the ventral photoreceptor cells they are easy to impale with glass capillary micropipettes. Their location along the length of the ventral eye nerve makes them easy to dissect out and fix for electron microscopy. Each cell has a large, ellipsoidal soma that tapers into an axon whose length depends upon the distance of the cell from the brain. The cell body contains a rich variety of cytoplasmic organelles with an especially abundant endoplasmic reticulum. The most prominent structural feature is the microvillous rhabdomere, a highly modified infolding of the plasmalemma. The microvilli are tightly packed together within the rhabdomere, and quintuple-layered junctions are encountered wherever microvillar membranes touch each other. Glial cells cover the surface of the photoreceptor cell and send long, sheet-like projections of their cytoplasm into the cell body of the photoreceptor cell. Some of these projections penetrate the rhabdomere deep within the cell and form quintuple-layered junctions with the microvilli. Junctions between glial cells and the photoreceptor cell and between adjacent glial cells are rarely encountered elsewhere, indicating that there is an open pathway between the intermicrovillous space and the extracellular medium. The axon has a normal morphology but it is electrically inexcitable.

In the dark, the ventral photoreceptor of Limulus exhibits timevariant currents under voltage-clamp conditions; that is, if the membrane potential of the cell is clamped to a depolarized value there is an initial large outward current which slowly declines to a steady level. The current-voltage relation of the cell in the dark is nonlinear. The only ion tested which has any effect on the current-voltage relation is potassium; high potassium shifts the reversal potential towards zero and introduces a negative slope-conductance region. When the cell is illuminated under voltage-clamp conditions, an additional current, the light-induced current, flows across the cell membrane. The time course of this current mimics the time course of the light response (receptor potential) in the unclamped cell; namely, an initial transient phase is followed by a steady-state phase. The amplitude of the peak transient current can be as large as 60 times the amplitude of the steady-state current, while in the unclamped cell the amplitude of the peak transient voltage never exceeds 4 times the amplitude of the steady-state voltage. The current-voltage relations of the additional light-induced current obtained for different instants of time are also nonlinear, but differ from the current-voltage relations of the dark current. The ions tested which have the greatest effect on the light-induced current are sodium and calcium; low sodium decreases the current, while low calcium increases the current. The data strongly support the hypothesis that two systems of electric current exist in the membrane. Thus the total ionic current which flows in the membrane is accounted for as the sum of a dark current and a light-induced current.

Horseradish peroxidase injection of identified low threshold cutaneous mechanoreceptor (LTCM) primary afferent axons was used to assess the somatotopic organization of hindlimb projections to laminae III and IV of cat dorsal horn. Multiple injections in the same animals were used to assess bilateral symmetry and precision. Thirty-one axons were injected, with more than 1 axon injected in each of 8 animals (25 axons). Somatotopic relations between their receptive field (RF) centers and the centers of their dorsal horn projections were similar to the somatotopic relations between dorsal horn cell RF centers and cell locations. Very few reversals of mediolateral somatotopic gradients (proximodistal RF location as a function of mediolateral projection center) were observed. Two afferents with nearly identical RFs in 1 animal had nearly identical projections. These observations held for many different combinations of receptor types. A simple mathematical model was used to demonstrate that assembly of dorsal horn cell RFs via passive sampling of the presynaptic neuropil by dorsal horn cell dendrites cannot account for the sizes of dorsal horn cell LTCM RFs. Hypothesized mechanisms for assembly of dorsal horn cell RFs must take into account the functional selectivity of connections required to produce RFs smaller than those predicted by the passive assembly model.

The "olfactory nerve," the endoparietal eye, and the rudimentary lateral eyes of Limulus (polyphemus) contain simple photoreceptor cells that duplicate many of the electrical responses of the retinular cells of the lateral eye; the responses are a receptor potential consisting of aninitial transient phase and a subsequent steady phase,low-amplitude fluctuations, and a small locally regenerative response to pulses of both light and current. Photic stimulation does not induce conducted action potentials, but does increase the membrane conductance. The receptor potentialrequires the presence of sodium ions in the external medium. Measurements of action and absorption spectra indicate a photopigment whose maximum absorption is of light with wavelength of 535 nanometers. The functional significance of these cells has not been ascertained.

No abstract

Dorsal horn map scale and peripheral innervation density were compared to test a hypothesized linear relationship. In anesthetized cats, low-threshold mechanoreceptive peripheral nerve innervation fields (IFs) were measured by outlining areas of skin from which action potentials could be elicited in cutaneous nerves. The same nerves were processed histologically and used to count myelinated axons. Innervation density for each nerve was calculated as number of axons divided by IF area. Single units were recorded throughout the hindlimb representation, in laminae III and IV. These data, combined with single-unit data from other animals and with cell counts in laminae III and IV, permitted estimation of numbers of cells whose receptive field centers fell in contiguous 1-cm bands from tips of toes to proximal thigh. A similar estimate was performed with the use of the nerve innervation data, so that peripheral innervation densities and map scales for the different 1-cm bands of skin could be compared. Correlation between the two was quite high (r = 0.8), and highly significant (P = 2.5 x 10(-7)). These results are consistent with a proposed developmental model in which map scale, peripheral innervation density, and reciprocal of dorsal horn cell receptive field size are mutually proportional, as a result of developmental mechanisms that produce constant divergence and convergence between primary afferent axons and dorsal horn cells.

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.