ArticleJournal of neurophysiology2005
Variability of swallowing performance in intact, freely feeding aplysia.
Article in Journal of neurophysiology, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 29 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed.
- Incorporating buccal mass planar mechanics and anatomical features improves neuromechanical modeling of Aplysia feeding behavior.Biological cybernetics · 2025Article
- Identified neurons B4/B5 function as sensory neurons, motor neurons, and interneurons inJournal of neurophysiology · 2025Article
- Peptidergic Modulation of the Lobster Cardiac System Has Opposing Action on Neurons and Muscles.Integrative organismal biology (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- The role of food odor in invertebrate foraging.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2022Review
- Discovery of leucokinin-like neuropeptides that modulate a specific parameter of feeding motor programs in the molluscan model,The Journal of biological chemistry · 2017Article
- Aplysia Locomotion: Network and Behavioral Actions of GdFFD, a D-Amino Acid-Containing Neuropeptide.PloS one · 2016Article
- Phylogenetic and individual variation in gastropod central pattern generators.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2015Review
- Preparing the periphery for a subsequent behavior: motor neuronal activity during biting generates little force but prepares a retractor muscle to generate larger forces during swallowing in Aplysia.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2015Article
- Motor neuronal activity varies least among individuals when it matters most for behavior.Journal of neurophysiology · 2015Article
- The neuromuscular transform of the lobster cardiac system explains the opposing effects of a neuromodulator on muscle output.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2013Article
- Cycle-by-cycle assembly of respiratory network activity is dynamic and stochastic.Journal of neurophysiology · 2013Article
- Functional organization and adaptability of a decision-making network in aplysia.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2012Article
- Towards a scientific concept of free will as a biological trait: spontaneous actions and decision-making in invertebrates.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2011Review
- Repetition priming of motoneuronal activity in a small motor network: intercellular and intracellular signaling.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2010Article
- Gross and histologic evaluation of 5 suture materials in the skin and subcutaneous tissue of the California sea hare (Aplysia californica).Journal of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science : JAALAS · 2010Article
- State dependence of network output: modeling and experiments.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2008Review
- Behavioral states, network states, and sensory response variability.Journal of neurophysiology · 2008Review
- Noise in the nervous system.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2008Review
- An input-representing interneuron regulates spike timing and thereby phase switching in a motor network.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2008Article
- Predicting adaptive behavior in the environment from central nervous system dynamics.PloS one · 2008Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Variability in nervous systems is often taken to be merely "noise." Yet in some cases it may play a positive, active role in the production of behavior. The central pattern generator (CPG) that drives the consummatory feeding behaviors of Aplysia generates large, quasi-random variability in the parameters of the feeding motor programs from one cycle to the next; the variability then propagates through the firing patterns of the motor neurons to the contractions of the feeding muscles. We have proposed that, when the animal is faced with a new, imperfectly known feeding task in each cycle, the variability implements a trial-and-error search through the space of possible feeding movements. Although this strategy will not be successful in every cycle, over many cycles it may be the optimal strategy for feeding in an uncertain and changing environment. To play this role, however, the variability must actually appear in the feeding movements and, presumably, in the functional performance of the feeding behavior. Here we have tested this critical prediction. We have developed a technique to measure, in intact, freely feeding animals, the performance of Aplysia swallowing behavior, by continuously recording with a length transducer the movement of the seaweed strip being swallowed. Simultaneously, we have recorded with implanted electrodes activity at each of the internal levels, the CPG, motor neurons, and muscles, of the feeding neuromusculature. Statistical analysis of a large data set of these recordings suggests that functional performance is not determined strongly by one or a few parameters of the internal activity, but weakly by many. Most important, the internal variability does emerge in the behavior and its functional performance. Even when the animal is swallowing a long, perfectly regular seaweed strip, remarkably, the length swallowed from cycle to cycle is extremely variable, as variable as the parameters of the activity of the CPG, motor neurons, and muscles.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.