ArticleBMC neuroscience2005
Octopamine increases the excitability of neurons in the snail feeding system by modulation of inward sodium current but not outward potassium currents.
Article in BMC neuroscience, 2005. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- In Situ Hybridization Chain Reaction and Immunohistochemical Labeling of the Octopamine Production Pathway in the Central Nervous System of Lymnaea stagnalis.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2026Article
- Recording from Snail Motor Nerves to Investigate Central Pattern Generation.Journal of undergraduate neuroscience education : JUNE : a publication of FUN, Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience · 2022Article
- Monoamines, Insulin and the Roles They Play in Associative Learning in Pond Snails.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2019Review
- Decision-making and action selection in insects: inspiration from vertebrate-based theories.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2015Review
- Distributed network organization underlying feeding behavior in the mollusk Lymnaea.Neural systems & circuits · 2012Article
- A self-organizing state-space-model approach for parameter estimation in hodgkin-huxley-type models of single neurons.PLoS computational biology · 2012Article
- Octopamine promotes rhythmicity but not synchrony in a bilateral pair of bursting motor neurons in the feeding circuit of Aplysia.The Journal of experimental biology · 2010Article
- Balanced plasticity and stability of the electrical properties of a molluscan modulatory interneuron after classical conditioning: a computational study.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2010Article
- Comparative neurobiology of feeding in the opisthobranch sea slug, Aplysia, and the pulmonate snail, Helisoma: evolutionary considerations.Brain, behavior and evolution · 2009Review
- Octopamine boosts snail locomotion: behavioural and cellular analysis.Invertebrate neuroscience : IN · 2006Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough octopamine has long been known to have major roles as both transmitter and modulator in arthropods, it has only recently been shown to be functionally important in molluscs, playing a role as a neurotransmitter in the feeding network of the snail Lymnaea stagnalis. The synaptic potentials cannot explain all the effects of octopamine-containing neurons on the feeding network, and here we test the hypothesis that octopamine is also a neuromodulator.
resultsThe excitability of the B1 and B4 motoneurons in the buccal ganglia to depolarising current clamp pulses is significantly (P < < 0.05) increased by (10 microM) octopamine, whereas the B2 motoneuron becomes significantly less excitable. The ionic currents evoked by voltage steps were recorded using 2-electrode voltage clamp. The outward current of B1, B2 and B4 motoneurons had two components, a transient IA current and a sustained IK delayed-rectifier current, but neither was modulated by octopamine in any of these three buccal neurons. The fast inward current was eliminated in sodium-free saline and so is likely to be carried by sodium ions. 10 microM octopamine enhanced this current by 33 and 45% in the B1 and B4 motoneurons respectively (P < < 0.05), but a small reduction was seen in the B2 neuron. A Hodgkin-Huxley style simulation of the B1 motoneuron confirms that a 33% increase in the fast inward current by octopamine increases the excitability markedly.
conclusionWe conclude that octopamine is also a neuromodulator in snails, changing the excitability of the buccal neurons. This is supported by the close relationship from the voltage clamp data, through the quantitative simulation, to the action potential threshold, changing the properties of neurons in a rhythmic network. The increase in inward sodium current provides an explanation for the polycyclic modulation of the feeding system by the octopamine-containing interneurons, making feeding easier to initiate and making the feeding bursts more intense.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.