Abstract
Periplaneta americana, like many other animals, can maintain a 24-hr. rhythm of locomotor activity when in constant conditions of light and temperature. A secretion produced by the neurosecretory cells in the sub-œsophageal ganglion has been shown to act as a controlling factor in the regulation of the phases of this rhythm1. Chilling cockroaches at 3° C. for some hours causes the phases of the activity rhythm to be retarded, in relation to solar time, by the number of hours for which the temperature is lowered. A method has now been devised whereby the temperature of the neurosecretory cells of the sub-æsophageal ganglion can be maintained at 3° C., while the rest of the body remains at room temperature. Neurosecretion apparently ceases at 3° C., and the phases of the neurosecretory cycle are retarded by the number of hours for which the cells have been chilled.
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References
Harker, J. E., Biol. Rev., 33, 1 (1958).
Beament, J. W. L., and Machin, K. E., J. Sci. Instr., 36, 87 (1959).
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BROWN, R., HARKER, J. A Method of controlling the Temperature of Insect Neurosecretory Cells in situ . Nature 185, 392 (1960). https://doi.org/10.1038/185392a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/185392a0
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