Supraesophageal ganglion explained

See also: Arthropod head problem. The supraesophageal ganglion (also "supraoesophageal ganglion", "arthropod brain" or "microbrain"^[1]) is the first part of the arthropod, especially insect, central nervous system. It receives and processes information from the first, second, and third metameres. The supraesophageal ganglion lies dorsal to the esophagus and consists of three parts, each a pair of ganglia that may be more or less pronounced, reduced, or fused depending on the genus:

• The protocerebrum, associated with the eyes (compound eyes and ocelli).^[2] Directly associated with the eyes is the optic lobe, as the visual center of the brain.
• The deutocerebrum processes sensory information from the antennae.^[3] It consists of two parts, the antennal lobe and the dorsal lobe.^{[3] [4] [5]} The dorsal lobe also contains motor neurons which control the antennal muscles.^[6]
• The tritocerebrum integrates sensory inputs from the previous two pairs of ganglia. The lobes of the tritocerebrum split to circumvent the esophagus and begin the subesophageal ganglion.

The subesophageal ganglion continues the nervous system and lies ventral to the esophagus. Finally, the segmental ganglia of the ventral nerve cord are found in each body segment as a fused ganglion; they provide the segments with some autonomous control.

A locust brain dissection to expose the central brain and carry out electro-physiology recordings can be seen here.^[7]

See also

• Lateral horn of insect brain
• Mushroom bodies
• Virtual Fly Brain
• Drosophila connectome

Further reading

• Erber . J. . Menzel . R. . 1977 . Visual interneurons in the median protocerebrum of the bee . Journal of Comparative Physiology . 121 . 1. 65–77 . 10.1007/bf00614181. 34198518 .
• Wong, Allan M., Jing W. Wang, and Richard Axel. Spatial Representation of the Glomerular Map in the Drosophila Protocerebrum. Cell. 109. 2. 2002. 229–241. 12007409. 10.1016/S0092-8674(02)00707-9. free.
• D. . Malun . U. . Waldow . Kraus. D. . J. . Boeckh . Connections between the deutocerebrum and the protocerebrum, and neuroanatomy of several classes of deutocerebral projection neurons in the brain of male Periplaneta americana . 1993 . 329 . 2 . 143–162 . 8454728 . J. Comp. Neurol. . 10.1002/cne.903290202. 20142144 .
• Morphology and response characteristics of neurones in the deutocerebrum of the brain in the honeybeeApis mellifera. Journal of Comparative Physiology A. 164. 4. 483–494. 1989. 10.1007/bf00610442. Flanagan. Daniel. Mercer. Alison R.. 23327875 . Alison Mercer.
• Morphology of the deutocerebrum of female Aedes aegypti (Diptera: Culicidae). Steven A.. Childress. Susan. B. McIver. Canadian Journal of Zoology. 1984. 62. 7. 1320–1328. 10.1139/z84-190.
• Book: Technau, Gerhard . Gerhard M . Technau . Brain development in Drosophila melanogaster . Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology . Springer Science+Business Media Landes Bioscience . New York Austin, Tex . 2008 . 628 . 978-0-387-78260-7 . 314349837 . nl . 10.1007/978-0-387-78261-4.
• Aubele, Elisabeth, and Nikolai Klemm. Origin, destination and mapping of tritocerebral neurons of locust. Cell and Tissue Research. 178. 2. 1977. 199–219. 66098. 10.1007/bf00219048. 22872816 .
• Chaudonneret, J. "Evolution of the insect brain with special reference to the so-called tritocerebrum." Arthropod brain. Wiley, New York (1987): 3-26.
• Web site: Behavioral Neuroscience, lecture on Honey Bee and its behavior - Neuroanatomy . . 2019-02-08.

External links

• Web site: Suboesophageal Ganglion. flybrain.

Notes and References

1. Exploration into the Adaptive Design of the Arthropod "Microbrain" . Makoto Mizunami, Fumio Yokohari, Masakazu Takahata. Zoological Science. 16. 5. 703–709. 10.2108/zsj.16.703. 1999. 86501328. free.
2. Web site: Meyer. John R.. The Nervous System. General Entomology course at North Carolina State University. Department of Entomology NC State University. 11 November 2013.
3. Structure and Function of the Deutocerebrum in Insects. U . Homberg . T A. Christensen. J G . Hildebrand. Annual Review of Entomology. 34. 477–501. 10.1146/annurev.en.34.010189.002401. 2648971. 1989.
4. Web site: Invertebrate Brain Platform. RIKEN BSI Neuroinformatics Japan Center.
5. Web site: Deutocerebrum . Flybrain.
6. Web site: Deutocerebrum . Invertebrate Brain Platform. Chelicerata, with their missing antennae, have a very reduced (or absent) deutocerebrum.
7. Web site: Dissecting insect brain for in vivo electrophysiology. YouTube.