Abstract
In medicinal leeches, heartbeat is a continuous, automatic function. Rhythmic constrictions of two muscular lateral vessels (the hearts) move blood through the closed circulatory system. The hearts are coordinated so that one beats in a rear-to-front progression (peristaltically), whereas the other one beats nearly synchronously along its length. The same coordination modes as in the hearts—peristaltic and synchronous—occur in the heart motor neurons: on one side, they are active in a rear-to-front progression, while on the other, they are active nearly synchronously. The rhythmic activity pattern of the heart motor neurons derives from the cyclic inhibition that they receive from the heartbeat central pattern generator (CPG). The core CPG comprises seven bilateral pairs of identified heart (HN) interneurons that occur in the first seven ganglia, HN(1)–HN(7).
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