The medicinal leech has served as an important experimental preparation for neuroscience
research since the late 19th century. Initial anatomical and developmental studies dating …

Noise and variability are fundamental companions to ion channels and synapses and thus
inescapable elements of brain function. The overriding unresolved issue is to what extent …

Embryonic stem (ES) cells provide a flexible and unlimited source for a variety of neuronal
types. Because mature neurons establish neuronal networks very easily, we tested whether …

Abstract Information processing and coding were analysed in dissociated hippocampal
cultures, grown on multielectrode arrays. Multisite stimulation was used to activate different …

Using the newly developed voltage‐sensitive dye VF2. 1. Cl, we monitored simultaneously
the spontaneous electrical activity of~ 80 neurons in a leech ganglion, representing around …

The nervous system of the leech is a particularly suitable model to investigate neural coding
of sensorimotor responses because it allows both observation of behavior and the …

Whole-body shortening was studied in the leech, Hirudo medicinalis, by a combination of
videomicroscopy and multielectrode recordings. Video microscopy was used to monitor the …

The experiments described here were designed to characterise sensory coding and
adaptation during mechanical stimulation in the leech (Hirudo medicinalis). A chain of three …

Local bending, a motor response caused by mechanical stimulation of the leech skin, has
been shown to be remarkably reproducible, in its initial phase, despite the highly variable …

Calcium dynamics in leech neurons were studied using a fast CCD camera. Fluorescence
changes (Δ F/F) of the membrane impermeable calcium indicator Oregon Green were …