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Lymnaea Brain Map: Neuron Atlas for the mollusc Lymnaea stagnalis

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posted on 2025-02-04, 09:33 authored by Kevin StarasKevin Staras, Michael CrossleyMichael Crossley

This record represents a permanent citable version of the website: Lymnaea Brain Map: Neuron Atlas for the mollusc Lymnaea stagnalis

The contents of this record will be updated in tandem with any updates to the website. The contents are presented as an Excel file with multiple sheets, containing detail on different identified neuron types in the Lymnaea brain.


About the project

Thanks to their accessible nervous systems, molluscs have provided some of the most fundamental insights into how neural circuits generate and control behavior. Notably, their neurons are large and consistently positioned from one individual to the next, making the possibility of building a brain atlas realistic.

In this project we address this challenge by using a synchrotron (particle accelerator) source to carry out rapid high-resolution X-ray imaging of the whole brain of the pond snail, Lymnaea stagnalis. Here, we have used this information to construct a 3D atlas of the part of the brain that controls feeding behavior. Later iterations will add detail on other regions of the CNS.

This record provides a summary of key neurons in the Lymnaea CNS that could be readily located using our atlas. For each cell-type we then carried out targeted intracellular electrophysiological recordings that enabled us to summarize the key functional properties. The selection of neurons we showcase here includes cell-types that have previously been identified and characterized by us and others over the last six decades, as well as new cell-types that we identified directly using the cell atlas.

Contents:

Excel file with multiple sheets, containing detail on different identified neuron types in the Lymnaea brain. This resource is intended to be scalable, and we will update the atlas to include new cell-types in due course.

readme.txt file containing Description information

Funding

Sussex Neuroscience Seed Fund, University of Sussex, UK

The Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2024-041)

Maximizing survival when hungry: neural mechanisms for computing behavioural priorities

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

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