Elsevier

Animal Behaviour

Volume 14, Issues 2–3, April–July 1966, Pages 239-245
Animal Behaviour

Sensory modifications of heart rate in crayfish

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(66)80078-7Get rights and content

Summaryo

  1. 1.

    A diminished sensory input from tactile, sound, vibration as well as visual and chemical sources results in a slowing of the crayfish heart. Within a period of 2 hr in such an environment, the heart rate was observed to decrease to nearly half that of the normal active rate.

  2. 2.

    Illumination of the animals following a diminished sensory input was shown to be accompanied by an acceleration of the heart to the original level, usually within 1/2 hr.

  3. 3.

    The chemoreception of food results in a cardiac arrest which may be sustained for 10–15 sec. During the consumption of food, the swallowing. reflex often produced a 2–3 sec heart block. During other phases of food searching or feeding, a marked cardiac acceleration was seen.

  4. 4.

    Locomotion affects the heart of the crayfish by increasing the rate. The tail-flip escape response appears more complex. There is typically an immediate but transient bradycardia followed by an increase in rate to above normal.

  5. 5.

    The normal heart rate in the free unrestrained crayfish may vary from near 60/min to 120/min at 24°C, depending upon the stimuli received from the internal and external environment. The rate change is often striking. In a single individual, an extremely rapid rate change from 45/min to 96/min was observed in response to tactile stimulation. Cardiac arrest may be equally abrupt. Although heart blocks are more difficult to induce during tachycardia, they occur frequently in response to the strong chemical stimulation accompanying feeding.

  6. 6.

    Visual, chemical or vibrational stimulation resulting from the presence of another individual of the species is apparently not an adequate stimulus to alter heart rate. The presence of another species, or contact between two individuals dividuals of the same species, does alter the heart rate, but the nature of the stimulus is not clear.

  7. 7.

    The neuronal and hormonal mechanisms which may account for the observed variations in heart rate are briefly reviewed.

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