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The colour change of the minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus with particular reference to the effect of spinal lesions
Author(s) -
Burton D.
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
journal of zoology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.915
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1469-7998
pISSN - 0952-8369
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7998.1969.tb01696.x
Subject(s) - phoxinus , spinal cord , minnow , anatomy , biology , bulbocavernosus reflex , dorsum , fish <actinopterygii> , neuroscience , fishery
An account is given of the anatomy of the spinal cord of the minnow, Phoxinus phoxinus L., and comparisons are made with the spinal cords of other teleosts. The effects on the rapid, neurally controlled colour responses of complete transection of the spinal cord at different levels indicated that, in the particular fish used for this work, the sympathetic pigmento‐motor fibres had a localized outflow from the spinal cord around vertebra 13. Partial lesions of the spinal cord at vertebrae 3, 4, 10 and 11 and their effects on the colour responses indicated that, at these spinal levels, the pigmento‐motor fibres were dorsomedially located within the dorsal horns. Complete and partial transection of the spinal cord at any single level between vertebrae 12 and 14 and partial transection of the dorsomedial spinal tissues at vertebrae 3, 4, 10 and 11 resulted in differential paling of the entire dorsolateral skin of the fish in response to a change of background from black to white. It would appear that in both cases this differential response of the melanophores was the result of transecting a proportion of the spinal pigmento‐motor fibres.