Dendritic Ca2+dynamics and multimodal processing in a cricket antennal interneuron

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

The integration of stimuli of different modalities is fundamental to information processing within the nervous system. A descending interneuron in the cricket brain, with prominent dendrites in the deutocerebrum, receives input from three sensory modalities: touch of the antennal flagellum, strain of the antennal base, and visual stimulation. Using calcium imaging, we demonstrate that each modality drives a Ca2+increase in a different dendritic region. Moreover, touch of the flagellum is represented in a topographic map along the neuron’s dendrites. Using intracellular recording, we investigated the effects of Ca2+on spike shape through the application of the Ca2+channel antagonist Cd2+and identified probable Ca2+-dependent K+currents. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Different dendritic regions of the cricket brain neuron DBNi1-2 showed localized Ca2+increases when three modalities of stimulation (touch of the flagellum, strain at antennal base, and visual input) were given. Touch stimulation induces localized Ca2+increases according to a topographic map of the antenna. Ca2+appears to activate K+currents in DBNi1-2.