Temperature compensation in the nervous system of the grasshopper

Abstract The wind‐sensitive head hair neurones of the grasshopper Schistocerca americana (Drury) are influenced by temperature, increasing the number of spikes fired in response to a given hair deflection as temperature increases. Because these neurones show similar increases in spike output for greater hair deflections, an interneurone which receives their input would not be able to distinguish changes in stimulus strength from changes in temperature, unless the effects of temperature were compensated or independently measured. This study examines the effects of temperature on the output of the tritocerebral commissure giant (TCG), an interneurone that receives wind hair input. Some wind hairs provide excitatory input to the TCG, while others are inhibitory (Bacon & Möhl, 1983). Temperature variations similar to those measured in freely moving animals were applied to the wind hairs and TCG while the interneurone's spike output was recorded. Two manipulations resulted in temperature compensated outputs from the TCG: (1) When both excitatory and inhibitory hair fields were stimulated simultaneously, the temperature sensitivity of the interneurone's spike output was significantly lower than when the excitatory hairs alone were stimulated. (2) The spike output of the TCG showed very little sensitivity to temperature changes which occurred only at its wind hair inputs, the temperature of the interneurone itself remaining constant. It is therefore possible for the output of a neural circuit to be temperature compensated even though the circuit itself may be composed of temperature‐sensitive units. Possible mechanisms by which temperature compensation may be produced in the TCG are discussed, and the behavioural relevance of the conditions under which TCG output is temperature compensated is considered.