Dopaminergic and serotonergic modulation of cellular and locomotor network properties in the lamprey spinal cord

TL;DRAbstract

<p>Motor activity is the basis for all behavior. It is therefore important to study the processes generating movement such as the neuronal networks in the spinal cord that generates and controls locomotion. The lamprey is used as a model system for the study of locomotion. Although, the lamprey is a simple vertebrate, it retains the same overall organization of the central nervous system (CNS) as higher vertebrates which makes it possible to, at least to some extent, extrapolate results to higher animals.</p><p>In the intact animal, the spinal central pattern generator (CPG) for locomotion is activated by glutamatergic input from reticulospinal axons. Fictive swimming can be induced in the in vitro preparation of the isolated spinal cord through application of excitatory amino acids such as N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA).</p><p>5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) and dopamine (DA) are co-localized and presumably co-released in a ventromedial plexus that ext

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