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Dynamic structural changes of synaptic contacts in the visual system of insects
Author(s) -
Pyza Elzbieta
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
microscopy research and technique
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.536
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1097-0029
pISSN - 1059-910X
DOI - 10.1002/jemt.10141
Subject(s) - neuroscience , biology , synaptogenesis , metaplasticity , visual system , synaptic plasticity , plasticity , insect , neurotransmission , anatomy , retina , ecology , biochemistry , physics , receptor , thermodynamics
The visual system of insects provides an excellent model to study processes of transduction and transmission of photic information, synaptogenesis, synaptic plasticity, and wiring between photoreceptors and their visual interneurons in the optic lobe. This review describes synaptic contacts between photoreceptors and other neurons in the visual system of insects, especially in the fly's first optic neuropile (the lamina), and summarizes changes observed in the synapses of visual cells that have been reported both in phylogeny and ontogeny, and also examples of synaptic plasticity in adult insects that have been evoked by intrinsic and extrinsic factors. Plasticity observed in synapses of the insect's visual system seems to exemplify not only synaptic contacts in insects but, given that similar examples of plasticity have been found in other animal groups, may also be a general phenomenon in the nervous system. Microsc. Res. Tech. 58:335–344, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.