Charles H. Page
Professor
Crustacean neurobiology; sensorimotor integration, motor neuron regeneration and reinnervation.
Our long term interests have been focused on interneuron control of motor activity in crustaceans, especially those neural circuits that control movement of the abdomen (tail) of lobsters, and the mechanisms by which motor neurons control the physiological characteristics of the muscle fibers that they innervate. Detailed analyses of these circuits in the abdominal nerve cord have focused on the roles of specific "identified" mechansensory receptor neurons, interneurons and motor neurons that form the neural circuits responsible for abdominal movement. Investigations of motor neuron regeneration and muscle reinnervation in the uropod appendages of crayfish have focused on the changes in synaptic responsiveness that we observe when uropod motor neurons regenerate to reinnervate their muscle fibers.
Representative Publications:
Killian, K. A., Page, C. H. 1992. Mechanosensory afferents innervating the swimmerets of lobster. I. Afferents
activated by cuticular deformation. J. Comp. Physiol. A 170:491-500.
Killian, K. A., Page, C. H. 1992. Mechanosensory afferents innervating the swimmerets of lobster. II. Afferents activated by hair deflection. J. Comp. Physiol. A 170:501-508.
Sukhedo, S. C., Page, C. H. 1992. Abdominal postural motor responses initiated by the muscle receptor organ in lobster depend upon centrally generated motor activity. J. exp. Biol. 162:167-183.
Lee, H. J., Page, C. H. 1995. Motoneuron reinnervation of phasic uropod muscles in crayfish. Develop. Brain Res. 87:179-187.