Ventral nerve cord

The anatomy of an insect, with the brain (#5) in teal green and ventral nerve cord (#19) in darkblue.
Left, a schematic of the Drosophila central nervous system, including the brain and ventral nerve cord. Right, a cross section of the ventral nerve cord, illustrating sensory input and motor output. Adapted with permission from.[1]

The ventral nerve cord is a major structure of the invertebrate central nervous system. It is the functional equivalent of the vertebrate spinal cord.[2] The ventral nerve cord coordinates neural signaling from the brain to the body and vice versa, integrating sensory input and locomotor output.[1] Because arthropods have an open circulatory system, decapitated insects can still walk, groom, and mate — illustrating that the circuitry of the ventral nerve cord is sufficient to perform complex motor programs without brain input.[3]

  1. ^ a b Tuthill JC, Wilson RI (October 2016). "Mechanosensation and Adaptive Motor Control in Insects". Current Biology. 26 (20): R1022–R1038. Bibcode:2016CBio...26R1022T. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2016.06.070. PMC 5120761. PMID 27780045.
  2. ^ Hickman C, Roberts L, Keen S, Larson A, Eisenhour D (2007). Animal Diversity (4th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-252844-2.
  3. ^ Venkatasubramanian L, Mann RS (June 2019). "The development and assembly of the Drosophila adult ventral nerve cord". Current Opinion in Neurobiology. 56: 135–143. doi:10.1016/j.conb.2019.01.013. PMC 6551290. PMID 30826502.