Synaptic connections between different sensory channels in CNS of the leech modulate the input of mechanosensory information

The mechanism for transmission of sensory information concerning a specific sensory modality or submodality can be called a sensory channel, including the receptors, sensory pathways and the parts of the central nervous system that further process the sensory information^[1,2]. A certain sensory channel can be activated by a suitable stimulus. Saraory infonnation is traduced by sensory receptor and is further transferred into central nervous system. The characteristics of a modality or submodality are meinly determined by the properties of the corresponding sensory receptors. However, besides the receptor properties, are there any other factors which have influence on the properties of a senwry modality? Is there a kind of gating mechanism existing which could selectively control the inputs of sensory information based on different sensory channels? Here we are trying to answer the above questions by studying the functional relationship between different mechanosensory modalities of leech.