Spatial and temporal analysis of evoked neural activity in optical recordings from American cockroach antennal lobes

Abstract

The spatio-temporal patterns of neural activity evoked by electrical stimuli to the antennal nerve (AN) in male cockroach antennal lobes (ALs) in vivo were analyzed by optical imaging using a voltage-sensitive dye. The response pattern was initially a depolarization on the AN and subsequently a depolarization followed by a hyperpolarization on the whole area of macroglomerulus (MG) and a part of ordinary glomerulus (OG). It was suggested by the pharmacological results that the depolarizing responses on the AL consist of both a presynaptic response, representing synchronous compounds action potentials from the AN, and a postsynaptic response, representing synchronous compound excitatory postsynaptic potentials and action potentials from neurites of AL neurons, and that the inhibitory responses of GABAergic local interneurons in the AN are different in time course from that in the AL.