The morphological and physiological characteristics of the intersegmental interneurons and accessible intrasegmental interneurons in the lobster abdominal nerve cord will be determined using extracellular and intracellular recording, stimulation and dye-filling techniques. Iontophoretic differential dye-filling will be used to map the locations of all intersegmental interneurons with somata in the anterior five abdominal ganglia. Once the locations of the somata are known, the intersegmental interneurons and any accessible intrasegmental interneurons will be further characterized by intracellular analysis. The results will provide detailed information concerning numbers, location and possible functional relationships of these interneurons and thereby provide a framework for future analysis of interneuronal function in the lobster abdominal nerve cord.
