Dynamic and static hysteresis in crayfish stretch receptors

This report calls attention to the magnitude and pervasiveness of hysteresis in the coding from length to afferent discharges in crayfish stretch receptor organs (SRO's). The influence of previous lengths on the rate that corresponded to a particular length L was manifest by a substantial excess of that encountered when L was arrived at from a shorter value over that when arrived at from a longer one. Hysteretic loops were present under dynamic conditions when length was modulated quasi-sinusoidally in the length vs. rate Lissajous plots of both the slowly and the fast-adapting organs (SAO, FAO), either not perturbed or perturbed. Loops became narrower with increasing frequency (except for when 1 to 1 locking appeared, Diez Martínez and Segundo, 1983). Hysteretic loops were present under static conditions when length changes were step-like, and fully adapted rates were noted in the SAO and in the perturbed FAO. Earlier reports suggest that hysteresis reflects jointly at least mechanical and electrogenic factors in the "length-to-local dendritic effects" and in the "generator potential to discharge" stages. Several models, either mechanical or mathematical, reveal hysteretic behavior. Detailed analysis has not been performed except for one instance (Chua and Bass, 1972) where, for example, loop-narrowing at higher frequencies occurs only with certain weighting functions whose physiological significance is as yet obscure. Hysteresis may be more widespread than suspected in sensory (and perhaps other) systems: it involves a multi-valuedness that raises the issue of how central mechanisms infer stimulus magnitude retrospectively from the discharge.