Functional organization of ciliary muscle in the cat

Abstract

Ocular accommodation was elicited by electric stimulation of the ciliary ganglion in cats. The responses to frequency variation were recorded before and after cutting a branch of the postganglionic motor supply to the ciliary muscle. At all stimulus frequencies the responses obtained after section were shown to be a constant fraction of those obtained in the intact preparation. This suggests that a fixed number of muscle cells are affected when a portion of the efferent nerve fibers is cut. It was concluded that smooth ciliary muscle is organized as independent functional units, akin to the motor-unit arrangement of skeletal muscle; a given nerve fiber influences the response of a limited number of muscle cells.