A relation between the threshold of stretch receptors in skeletal muscle and the diameter of their axons.

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Abstract
Pairs of stretch receptors whose axons lay in separate dorsal root filaments were isolated and studied by simultaneous recordings of their responses to passive stretch and by comparisons of their axonal conduction velocities. 100 pairs of unselected primary spindle receptors were examined. In 74 of them the unit with the lower threshold to stretch had the more slowly conducting axon, in 10 pairs the thresholds or conduction velocities were indistinguishable and in 16 pairs the unit with the more rapidly conducting axon had the lower threshold. Comparisons of 32 pairs of secondary (group II) spindle receptors revealed no significant relationship between stretch-threshold and axonal diameter. Sixty-one pairs of units were examined in which one unit was a primary spindle receptor and the other a secondary receptor according to their conduction velocities. In 53 (87%) of these "mixed" comparisons the more slowly conducting of the 2 units had the lower threshold to passive stretch. In 29 of 43 pairs of tendon organs (67%) the unit with the more slowly conducting axon had the lower threshold to stretch.

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