Abstract
THE terms action-potential and impulse are often considered interchangeable1. But while action potentials would include impulses together with graded potentials, it may be useful to define impulses as all or none potential changes with a constant amplitude and shape unaffected by changes in the strength or quality of the stimulus1. Impulses, so defined, are usually associated with conduction in nerve and muscle but are also found in plants2, protozoans3, and may be common in epithelia of coelenterates but are only definitely established in some hydrozoan jellyfish4,5. The first example that I know of impulses from non-nervous and non-muscular tissue in a vertebrate is described here from the skin of clawed toad (Xenopuslaevis) tadpoles.
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ROBERTS, A. Conducted Impulses in the Skin of Young Tadpoles. Nature 222, 1265–1266 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/2221265a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2221265a0
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