Selectivity in regeneration of the oculomotor nerve in the cichlid fish, Astronotus ocellatus

Abstract

It has long been considered a general rule for nerve regeneration that the reinnervation of skeletal muscle is nonselective. Regenerating nerve fibers are supposed to reconnect with one skeletal muscle as readily as another according to studies covering a wide range of vertebrates (Weiss, 1937; Weiss & Taylor, 1944; Weiss & Hoag, 1946; Bernstein & Guth, 1961; Guth, 1961, 1962, 1963). Similarly, in embryogenesis proper functional connexions between nerve centers and particular muscles are supposedly attained, not by selective nerve outgrowth but rather through a process of ‘myotypic modulation’ (Weiss, 1955) that presupposes nonselective peripheral innervation. Doubt about the general validity of this rule and the concepts behind it has come from a series of studies on regeneration of the oculomotor nerve in teleosts, urodeles, and anurans and of spinal fin nerves in teleosts (Sperry, 1946, 1947, 1950, 1965; Sperry & Deupree, 1956; Arora & Sperry, 1957a, 1964).