Five types of bursting neurons have been described in Aplysia: three types of individual bursters--the LUQ cells, L10, and R15, plus two types of population bursters--the bag cells and the R25/L25 cells. Individual bursters can burst without any synaptic input, while bursts generated by the population bursters are shaped largely by their synaptic interactions. In this paper we review what is known about the burst mechanisms of these five classes of neurons and attempt to relate them to the roles of the five cell types in the control of autonomic function.