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Cell Biology JoVE (Open Access) Citable · DOI

Neural Circuit Recording from an Intact Cockroach Nervous System

DOI: 10.3791/50584-v
What you'll learn
  • ✓ Dissect and prepare an intact cockroach ventral nerve cord for electrophysiology
  • ✓ Perform extracellular recordings from cercal nerves and connectives
  • ✓ Apply electrical and mechanical stimuli to evoke and characterize neural responses
  • ✓ Interpret recruitment patterns from multi-electrode recordings
Protocol

This article describes the cockroach ventral nerve cord dissection and extracellular recordings from the cercal nerve and connectives. Evoked responses are generated by electrical stimulation of the cercal nerve or direct mechanical stimulation of the cerci.

Difficulty
advanced
Total time
~3–4 hours per preparation
Model organism
Periplaneta americana (American cockroach)
Biosafety
BSL-1

Steps

1
Prepare cockroach for electrophysiology recording

Anesthetize and position the American cockroach (P. americana) for ventral nerve cord access. Secure the specimen in preparation for dissection and electrode placement.

▶ 01:31
2
Set up extracellular recording electrodes

Dissect the ventral nerve cord and position extracellular electrodes on the cercal nerve and connectives. Establish stable baseline recordings from isolated neural tissue.

▶ 03:58
3
Electrically stimulate sensory nerves for recruitment

Apply graded electrical stimulation to the cercal nerve and record evoked responses to determine neuron recruitment patterns and response thresholds.

▶ 06:43
4
Record from intersegmental connectives

Reposition electrodes on connectives between abdominal segments A3 and A5 to capture propagating neural activity and assess information flow across the CNS.

▶ 09:02
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