Development of a System for Measuring Electric Potential on the Body Surface of a Silkworm

抄録

To investigate the active movements of organs and tissues in a silkworm body, a system was developed to measure the electric potential of the body surface of a silkworm, which was derived from muscle contractions. The measurement system can record the behavior of the silkworm by a video camera. We measured the electric potential of the body surface of a silkworm was in different state and behavior, particularly in resting and moving, and analyzed the constituent interests of the electric potential signal using the spectral analysis method, and the relationship between the electric potential and the intersegmental distance using the cross-correlation analysis method. We obtained different spectral density patterns of electric potential signals and extracted distinctive peaks in frequency range. These results showed that the electric potential obtained by this system reflects the active movement of organs and tissues of the silkworm. With this measurement system, it is thus possible to investigate the active movement and existence states of the internal organs and tissues of the silkworm that is in normal growth condition, without any dissection and restriction of behaviors.