Functional organization of ciliary muscle in the cat

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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.

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