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The rapid response of Myxicola infundibulum (Grübe)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2009

M. B. V. Roberts
M. B. V. Roberts
Affiliation:
Marlborough College, Wiltshire
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Extract

In Myxicola the rapid muscular response produced by direct stimulation of the nerve cord with a single shock is usually large and obeys a simple ‘all-or-nothing’ relationship to the intensity of stimulation. A single shock of sufficient strength evokes a single giant fibre impulse which produces an extensive contraction of the longitudinal muscle.

The magnitude of the summated contraction obtained by repetitive stimulation of the nerve cord is found to depend on the number and frequency of the shocks, thus providing the animal with a mechanism by which, theoretically, it could grade its escape response.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , Volume 42 , Issue 3 , October 1962 , pp. 527 - 539
Copyright
Copyright © Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 1962

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References

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