Morphological and physiological identification of motor neurons innervating flight musculature in the cockroach, Periplaneta americana

Morphological and physiological data were used to establish which motor neurons innervate known wing elevator and depressor muscles. Nerves to identified muscles were backfilled to establish the neuropilar morphology of neurons innervating each muscle. Individual motor neurons were recorded intra-cellularly during flight sequences and then filled. The intracellularly identified cell was then matched with backfilled cells that had similar ganglionic morphology, exited the same nerve root, and had the same function during the flight cycle. In this way the target muscle of five elevator and five depressor motor neurons was established.