(1) Balaton Limnological Research Institute, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, PO Box 35, H-8237 Tihany, Hungary;(2) Department of Biology, University of York, PO Box 373, York, YO1 5YW, UK
Abstract:
Background
Although octopamine has long been known to have major roles as both transmitter and modulator in arthropods, it has only recently been shown to be functionally important in molluscs, playing a role as a neurotransmitter in the feeding network of the snail Lymnaea stagnalis. The synaptic potentials cannot explain all the effects of octopamine-containing neurons on the feeding network, and here we test the hypothesis that octopamine is also a neuromodulator.