The Central Nervous System of Box Jellyfish

TY - ABST

T1 - The Central Nervous System of Box Jellyfish

AU - Garm, Anders Lydik

AU - Ekström, Peter

N1 - Volumne: 269

PY - 2008

Y1 - 2008

N2 - Cubomedusae, or box jellyfish, are renowned for their immense stingingpower, but another truly remarkable feature is their visual system. Theyhave four sensory structures called rhopalia, and each of the rhopalia containssix eyes of four morphological types. These eyes support a range ofbehaviors in the box jellyfish such as obstacle avoidance and navigation.The need to process the visual information and turn it into the appropriatebehavior puts strong demands on the nervous system of box jellyfish,which appears more elaborate than in other cnidarians. Here, the centralpart of this nervous system is described. Each rhopalium holds a separatepart of the CNS with 1,000 nerve cells and a large amount of neuropil.The rhopalial nervous system has several subsystems defined by the anatomy,location, and immunocytochemistry of the cells. Most of the subsystemsconnect to one or more of the eye types, and it is likely that the rhopalialnervous system accounts for most of the visual processing. Themajor part of the CNS is made up of a ring nerve encircling the bellshaped body. The ring nerve holds around 10,000 cells and is directlyconnected to all four rhopalial nervous systems. The main function of thering nerve is probably to integrate the information from the rhopalia andcontrol the motor nerve net. Both parts of the CNS contain subsystems ofgiant neurons indicating the need for fast conduction. Uni- as well asbidirectional synapses are found throughout the CNS.

AB - Cubomedusae, or box jellyfish, are renowned for their immense stingingpower, but another truly remarkable feature is their visual system. Theyhave four sensory structures called rhopalia, and each of the rhopalia containssix eyes of four morphological types. These eyes support a range ofbehaviors in the box jellyfish such as obstacle avoidance and navigation.The need to process the visual information and turn it into the appropriatebehavior puts strong demands on the nervous system of box jellyfish,which appears more elaborate than in other cnidarians. Here, the centralpart of this nervous system is described. Each rhopalium holds a separatepart of the CNS with 1,000 nerve cells and a large amount of neuropil.The rhopalial nervous system has several subsystems defined by the anatomy,location, and immunocytochemistry of the cells. Most of the subsystemsconnect to one or more of the eye types, and it is likely that the rhopalialnervous system accounts for most of the visual processing. Themajor part of the CNS is made up of a ring nerve encircling the bellshaped body. The ring nerve holds around 10,000 cells and is directlyconnected to all four rhopalial nervous systems. The main function of thering nerve is probably to integrate the information from the rhopalia andcontrol the motor nerve net. Both parts of the CNS contain subsystems ofgiant neurons indicating the need for fast conduction. Uni- as well asbidirectional synapses are found throughout the CNS.

M3 - Conference abstract in journal

SN - 0362-2525

SP - 1463

JO - Journal of Morphology

JF - Journal of Morphology

IS - 12

T2 - 1st International Congress on Invertebrate Morphology

Y2 - 17 August 2008 through 21 August 2008

ER -