The Electrical and Mechanical Events of Neuro-Muscular Transmission in the Cockroach, Periplaneta Americana (L.)

Abstract

1. A nerve-muscle preparation in the metathorax of the cockroach is described. It consists of the second tergal muscle of the trochantin (muscle 162 of Carbonell) innervated by a branch of nerve 3 A. Electrical changes are recorded from electrodes on the muscle surface, and the onset of contraction is registered by the stylus of a piezo-electric pick-up. 2. With low (3-5 per sec.) stimulation rates at room temperature the neuromuscular delay is less than 1.2 msec., and the latent period of contraction about 3.0 msec. The muscle potential is 4-5 msec. in duration, positive in sign at the muscle surface, and monophasic in form with either monopolar or bipolar recording. During excitation a potential gradient develops along the muscle, the greatest positivity being in the middle near the point of nerve entry. 3. Neither electrical nor mechanical response show gradations with changes in stimulus strength or frequency. No facilitation is evident, and the response appears to be due to stimulation of a single quick motor nerve fibre. 4. In order to study the effects of direct stimulation nerve 3 was sectioned and allowed to degenerate. All trace of the peripheral nerve stump was lost after 3 days, when the muscle became completely inexcitable to all forms of electrical stimulation. There were no gross structural changes which would account for this loss of excitability. 5. It is concluded that the recorded muscle potential in the cockroach is analogous to the vertebrate end-plate potential, being the sum of local muscle potentials developing simultaneously in several fibres, and sequentially at several innervation points along the same fibre. Conduction within the muscle is carried out entirely by motor nerve fibres. 6. Possible causes of the positive sign of the muscle during activity are discussed.