The neuromuscular transform in a single segment of a segmented heart tube

Abstract

Moving blood through the segmented heart tubes of leeches requires sequential constrictions driven by motor neurons controlled by a central pattern generator. In a single heart segment, we varied stimuli to explore the neuromuscular transform. Decreasing the cycle period, e.g., to increase volume pumped over time, without altering motor burst duration and intraburst spike frequency shortens relaxation time and decreases amplitude. The likely strategy to preserve constriction amplitude is to shorten burst duration while increasing spike frequency.