RELATION BETWEEN SPIKE HEIGHT AND POLARIZING CURRENT IN SINGLE MEDULLATED NERVE FIBERS

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Abstract
At the polarized locus the height of the spike of the most excitable fiber in the toe nerve prepn. of Rana pipiens increases linearly under anode and decreases linearly under cathode polarization up to current strengths that produce signs of, or actual, block, but the proportionality factor usually is greater (but nerver smaller) with inwardly directed currents. The height of the spike at the limits of linearity has ranged between 118 and 182% with anode and between 19 and 60% with cathode polarization. Storage at 5[degree]C up to 43 hrs. does not alter this result. The response given by all of the A fibers of the sciatic of R. catesbiana gives similar results except (1) that departures from linearity occur roughly at the lowest values derived from single fibers and (2) that the range of the ratios of the tangents of the angle at zero of the graphs is much narrower. Sciatic nerves stored 1-8 days yield curves which, in their mid-sections, are reversed S in shape, pass through zero without an angle, but with ordinates that are larger with ingoing than with outgoing currents. The results indicate that under aerobic conditions the susceptible processes determining spike height are altered linearly by applied currents up to blocking strengths.

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