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Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science, Vol s3-98, 163-178, Copyright © 1957 by Company of Biologists

Mauthner Neurones in Young Larval Lampreys (Lampetra spp.)

H. P. WHITING 1

1 Department of Zoology, University of Bristol

‘Mauthner's cells’ are a pair of very large neurones found in the hind-brain in all main groups of fishes and amphibia, except in sharks and rays. Mauthner cells always have some dendrites in synaptic relation with incoming VIIIth-nerve fibres and have a large axon which crosses the brain and descends the opposite side of the spinal cord, co-ordinating somatic motor activity. Papers discussing the presence of these cells in the lampreys are reviewed: two different pairs in the lamprey of ‘Müller's cells’ (giant co-ordinating cells with homolateral axons) have been considered homologous with Mauthner cells, but recent textbooks accept neither homology

A pair of very large neurones, having the Mauthnerian characteristics, is described in the embryonic and early larval stages of Lampetra planeri and L. fluviatilis. The neurones are illustrated by figures in different planes.They are not one of the pairs of Müller neurones described by previous workers

From this and similar evidence it is suggested that in all non-amniote vertebrates the earliest swimming movements underthe control of the brain are effected through variations from one homologous co-ordinating system, of which the Mauthner cells form part.






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1957