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Resistance Reflexes from a Crab Muscle Receptor without Impulses

Abstract

IN the preceding communication we describe sensory responses of the coxal muscle receptor of crabs1. Unlike other muscle receptors, no all or none impulses were observed in the sensory nerve fibres, even with stimuli strong enough to elicit large receptor potentials. This absence of impulses may be normal, or in some way a consequence of the experimental procedure employed. One way to test this is to look for reflexes evoked by stimulation of the muscle receptor, and to find what form of activity in the afferent receptor nerve is responsible for such reflexes. An obvious reflex to look for is a “resistance reflex”, analogous to those of the more distal joints of crustacean legs2 and to the stretch reflexes of crayfish abdominal muscle receptors3 and vertebrate muscle spindles4. In the present case such a reflex could be expected in motor axons to the coxal promotor muscle of the leg, for this muscle is stretched by the same joint movement that stretches the receptor muscle.

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References

  1. Alexandrowicz, J. S., and Whitear, M., J. Mar. Biol. Ass. UK, 36, 603 (1957).

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  2. Bush, B. M. H., Comp. Biochem. Physiol., 15, 567 (1965).

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  3. Fields, H. L., J. Exp. Biol., 44, 455 (1966).

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  4. Granit, R., Muscular Afferents and Motor Control (Almqvist and Wiksell, Stockholm, 1966).

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BUSH, B., ROBERTS, A. Resistance Reflexes from a Crab Muscle Receptor without Impulses. Nature 218, 1171–1173 (1968). https://doi.org/10.1038/2181171a0

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