Abstract
THE ‘membrane’, that is, the electric double layer, surrounding the muscle fibre generates no field of forces inside the system. If, however, part of the membrane becomes depolarized, the depolarized part acts, so to say, as a ‘window’ in the closed system and an electric field is generated. If the depolarization should occur with a sharp border, the maximal intensity of the field in the axis of the fibre would correspond to a field generated between the two plates of a condenser placed at a distance equal to the diameter of the fibre and having the same potential difference as the two sides of the ‘membrane’. If the wave of depolarization travels along the membrane, this will have the same effect as if we had pulled electrodes along the axis charged correspondingly. Experiments, performed along this line by St. Hajdu and one of us, show that such a field will actually bring the contractile matter directly to contraction even if the membrane is inoperative.
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BAY, Z., SZENT-GYÖRGYI, A. ‘Window Fields’ in Muscle. Nature 167, 482 (1951). https://doi.org/10.1038/167482a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/167482a0
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