Observations of Olfactory Information Flows within Brain of the Terrestrial Slug, Inciralia fruhstorferi

Olfactory information flows within the terrestrial slug´s brain are presented. Because brain functions emerge from simultaneous and cooperative information processing in various brain regions, such information flows are important to understand mechanisms for communication among the neurons in brain. Three aspects concerning the information flows for olfactory functions in the terrestrial slug Inciralia fruhstorferi are described: the anatomical projections of nerves that convey the olfactory information into the brain; the spatiotemporal activities of the brain evoked by electrical stimulations to these nerves; the distribution of catecholamine-containing neurons that may modulate network properties of various brain regions. These consistently indicate that in the slug´s brain two regions are included in olfactory functions and these regions may interact thorough neuromodulatory effects.