Relation between size of compound sensory or muscle action potentials, and length of nerve segment

In 24 median nerves from 12 healthy subjects, antidromic digital sensory potentials progressively diminished in size, averaging 40.4, 37.0, 30.7, and 23.9 microV X msec with stimulation at the palm, wrist, elbow, and axilla, respectively. In contrast, compound muscle action potentials changed minimally, measuring 19.4, 19.8, 19.0, and 18.2 mV X msec, respectively. Similar studies of the ulnar and radial nerves showed identical trends. Physiologic temporal dispersion can mimic conduction block of sensory nerves by summating the peaks of opposite polarity generated by fast- and slow-conducting axons. This type of cancellation affects muscle responses much less because motor unit potentials of longer duration superimpose nearly in phase, given the same latency shift as the sensory potentials.