Summary
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1.
The temporal characteristics of the muscle potentials and of the action potentials of the excitor and the inhibitor efferent nerves of the claw opener muscle and the corresponding muscle tension were recorded simultaneously during reflexly evoked claw opening in the undissected crayfish.
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2.
Contraction was initiated by a high-frequency burst of excitor, and often concurrent inhibitor, discharge but could then be maintained by continuing excitation at about half the frequency.
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Paired action potentials were generated by both the excitor and the inhibitor; there were also many sequences of intervals of identical length between successive excitor impulses.
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4.
The results suggested that concurrent excitor and inhibitor discharge enhances the resolution of muscle tension control and that single presynaptic sources might selectively activate distinct populations of muscle fibers and hysteretic phenomena.
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The author is grateful to Dr. J. Dudel who provided many helpful suggestions. This investigation was supported by a Helen Hay Whitney Foundation fellowship to the author and by a grant from Stiftung Volkswagenwerk As: 11, 1955.
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Smith, D.O. Temporal characteristics of efferent neuron discharge during muscle contraction in the crayfish claw. J. Comp. Physiol. 96, 273–283 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00619221
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00619221