Responses of crayfish muscle preparations to nerve stimulation with various patterns of impulse sequence. Effects of...

The present study was carried out with an attempt to see what effects would be produced by various patterns of impulse trains other than pulses of a definite frequency in nerve-muscle systems of the crayfish. Single axons of nerves of the opener, the slow closer and the fast closer of the crayfish claw were stimulated and the tension development of muscles were recorded. The impulse trains tested are as follows: (i) intermittent stimulation; e.g., paired (doublet) and triplet stimuli, (ii) the intercalated stimulation during stimulation by constant-frequency pulses and (iii) the adaptational type of stimulation, i.e. a train of pulses of which interval gradually increases as seen in the process of the adaptation in the sensory nerve. Results obtained are as follows. Intermittent doublet stimuli produced a greater tension than the monotonous stimulation of the same average frequency. Repetitive triplet or quadruplet stimuli caused further increments in the tension development. Intercalation of a stimulus during usual monotonous stimulation induced a catch-like effect on the tension. Intercalated triplet stimuli provoked a stronger catch action. With the adaptational type of stimulation, an initial rapid tension development occurred with a least latency and this was followed by a maintained tension. There are certain temporal configurations of stimuli which produced a greater tension or a more physiologically meaningful time course of tension development. This suggests the significance of nervous coding.