Action potentials in the nervous system of the crayfish. V. Temporal relations in presynaptic and postsynaptic responses

✍ Scribed by Prosser, C. Ladd

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 1935
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 867 KB
• Volume: 7
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0095-9898
• DOI: 10.1002/jcp.1030070106

✦ Synopsis

Along the margins of the lobes of the tail (telson aud uropods) of' tlic crayfish is a fringe of sciisory hairs. Each hair coiitaiiis one sensory ending (touch receptor), amid the cell body of the nerve fiber of this ending lies a t the base of the hair (Retzius, 1895). The afferent fiber from this receptor passes forward to the sixth abdominal ganglion (caudal ganglion) where it activates some neiirones passing forward in the ventral iierve cord and others passing ont iii nerves to the opposite lobes of the tail. Resides in the tail region, tlie crag'fisli is supplied on appendages, joints, and borders of 1 he body with mecliaiio-receptors. The tracts followed in the central nervous systpm by responses from these receptors have been traced functionally (Prosser, '33 a ) . What are the time relatioiis of these r )onses before and after entering the central nervous system! Amplified action potentials were recorded in some esperimeiits with a cathode ray oscillograpli, and in others with a Matthews oscillograpli. Two methods w-cre used to proride the stimulus and its sigiial. For gross stimnlation a silver needle was employed with a 0.001 mfd. condenser arranged to discharge through it when it touched a moist appendagc.

This work was hegun wliile tlic :ruthor mas Parker Fellow in Physiology, I t was rcported Harrard TJnirersity, aiid was eompletcd at Clark Viiivcrsity. in brief i n the ['roc. Am. Ph>siol. So(.., '3.5, p. 108.