Electrophysiological Characteristics of Neurons Responding to Sex Pheromone in the Antennal Lobe of the Male Moth Agrotis segetum

The PN response pattern evoked by electrical shock would be interdependent with morphological results and could be used as descriptor of neurons in some moths. In this study,intracellular recordings were performed and 34 neurons in MGC of Agrotis segetum were recorded;all those neurons responded to sex pheromone.12 neurons just tested by sex pheromone,and 22 neurons both tested by sex pheromone and electrical stimulation.Electrical stimulation elicited similar response of neuron as blend,which was one kind of biphasic response pattern consisting of a depolarization phase and followed by a hyperpolarization phase.The depolari zation phase stimulated by electrical shock was very short,but it was clearly present in this and all other tested neurons.In all tested neurons stimulated by electrical shock,there were 2-10 spikes followed the stimulus artifact and 10-80 ms burst duration in the depolarization phase.So electrical stimulation elicit ed the frequency response of neuron as same as the pulsed response of neuron activated by blend.Hyperpolarization potential and followed inhibition duration bec ame bigger and longer with hyperpolarizing current injection.This was different from the case in Manduca sexta,which the early inhibitory potential was re versed with only -0.2 nA of injected current.Further analysis revealed that the frequency of neuron positively correlation with the hyperpolarization potential (R=0.667,P<0.0001) and negatively correlation with inhibition duration (R=-0.709,P<0.0001).Results indicated descriptor of neurons in MGC with electrical stimulation in A.segetum should be proved by more experiments.