Organization of crustacean neuropil. I. Patterns of synaptic connections in lobster stomatogastric ganglion.

The stomatogastric ganglion of the lobster consists of about thiry neurons, mainly large monopolar cells, which have been well characterized physiologically. This paper presents an anatomical description of this ganglion, emphasizing synaptic connections in the neuropil. The neuron cell bodies are located on the dorsal surface of the ganglion. They send processes into the underlying neuropil mass. The neuropil is differentiated into two regions: a core of coarse neuropil consists of large heavily ensheathed processes; a surrounding region of fine-textured synaptic neuropil consists of smaller unsheather processes. Synapses are found only in synaptic neuropil, not in the core of coarse neuropil. Synaptic contacts, about one million in the entire neuropil, are easily recognized by a set of criteria including presynaptic vesicles and pre- and postsynaptic membrane specializations. Most synaptic contacts invole at least three neural processes, usually one pre- and two postsynaptic elements. Synapses are clustered onto irregular swellings or varicosities on neural processes. These varicosities make both pre- and postsynaptic contacts. Three differenty types of presynaptic profile are recognized. Pyloric dilator, ventricular dilator and lateral posterior gastric neurons belong to type A with clear irregular synaptic vesicles. Lateral pyloric, pyloric, anterior median and dorsal gastric neurons belong to type B with larger clear round vesicles. Many unidentified fibres, presumably stomatogastric nerve afferents, blong to type C with both small clear irregular vesicles and also large dense-core vesicles. The synaptic vesicle types are tentatively correlated with neurotransmitter: type A with acetylcholine, type B with an unknown transmitter, possibly glutamate, and type C with dopamine. The distribution of synaptic contacts on the processes of identified neurons reconstructed from serial section is presented in the following paper.