A long-lasting birefringence change recorded from a tetanically stimulated squid giant axon

A long-lasting birefringence change (the delayed response) was found to be produced in a tetanically stimulated squid giant axon. The change was independent of the concurrent membrane potential change, summated on repetitive stimulation, and always had a sign representing a decrease in resting birefringence. The axons was placed between a polarizer and an analyzer with their polarizing axes crossed, making an angle of 45 degrees with the longitudinal direction of the axon. The light beam that passed through the axon and the other optical elements was received by a photodiode. The change in light intensity evoked by repetitive stimulation was composed of brief initial responses, which took place in response to individual stimuli, and a delayed response, which developed gradually and lasted for several hundred msec. It was necessary to differentiate the effect of birefringence change from that of turbidity change. Formulas were derived on the assumption that the optical properties of the axon could be represented by a model of a uniaxial crystal that was not only birefringent but also dichroic, its extinction coefficients and the angle of retardation being changed independently on excitation. Calculations with them yielded the resting retardation, which agreed well with those obtained by the Senarmont's method, and the change in birefringence, which agreed well with the other calculated value derived from experiments using a quarter-wave plate. The results of the calculation confirmed the existence of the long-lasting birefringence change in the tetanically stimulated axon.