Skip to main content
Article
Measures of Heart and Ventilatory Rates in Freely Moving Crayfish
Journal of Visualized Experiments
  • Sonya M. Bierbower, University of Kentucky
  • Robin L. Cooper, University of Kentucky
Abstract

The fear, flight or fight response serves as the fundamental physiological basis for examining an organism's awareness of its environment under an impending predator attack. Although it is not known whether invertebrates posses an autonomic nervous system identical to that of vertebrates, evidence shows invertebrates have a sympathetic-like response to regulate the internal environment and ready the organism to act behaviorally to a given stimuli. Furthermore, this physiological response can be feasibly measured and it acts as a biological index for the animal's internal state. Measurements of the physiological response can be directly related to internal and external stressors through changes in the central nervous system controlled coordination of the cardio-vascular and respiratory systems. More specifically, monitoring heart and ventilation rates provide quantifiable measures of the stress response not always behaviorally observed. Crayfish are good model organisms for heart and ventilatory rate measurements due to the feasibility of recording, as well as the rich history known of the morphology of the crayfish, dating back to Huxley in 1888, and the well-studied typical behaviors.

Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-15-2009
Disciplines
Notes/Citation Information

Published in Journal of Visualized Experiments, v. 32, e1594, p. 1-4.

Copyright © 2009 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
http://dx.doi.org/10.3791/1594
Citation Information
Sonya M. Bierbower and Robin L. Cooper. "Measures of Heart and Ventilatory Rates in Freely Moving Crayfish" Journal of Visualized Experiments Vol. 32 Iss. e1594 (2009) p. 1 - 4
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/robin_cooper/99/