Differences in variability of discharge frequency between primary and secondary muscle spindle afferent endings of the cat

ABSTRACT THE frequency of action potentials in a nerve fibre has long been known to be a function of the input intensity. Fluctuations in frequency when the stimulus is held constant have

often been considered merely as unwanted ‘noise’ limiting the accuracy of the experimental results. However, these fluctuations may also limit the amount of information which can be

transmitted down a nerve fibre and so are of interest _per se_. In a receptor or an isolated axon, these fluctuations may result from the basic processes of action potential initiation and

are of interest in this context. If the variability had the same basis in different cells (for example, resistive noise), one would expect that it would be smaller, the larger the cell or

axon, and this is often the case1. However, one of us (P. B. C. M.) noticed that the discharge initiated from single secondary endings of muscle spindles of the cat seemed to be considerably

more regular than that from the primary endings, though these latter have the larger afferent nerve fibres2; later this was also found to have been noticed by others3,4. Access through your

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BEING VIEWED BY OTHERS ELECTROMYOGRAPHY OF THE MUSCLE SPINDLE Article Open access 10 March 2022 SPIKE RELIABILITY IS CELL TYPE SPECIFIC AND SHAPES EXCITATION AND INHIBITION IN THE CORTEX

Article Open access 02 January 2025 SLOW RAMPING EMERGES FROM SPONTANEOUS FLUCTUATIONS IN SPIKING NEURAL NETWORKS Article Open access 24 August 2024 REFERENCES * Verveen, A., _Acta

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AUTHORS AND AFFILIATIONS * Laboratory of Physiology, University of Oxford, R. B. STEIN & P. B. C. MATTHEWS Authors * R. B. STEIN View author publications You can also search for this

author inPubMed Google Scholar * P. B. C. MATTHEWS View author publications You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar RIGHTS AND PERMISSIONS Reprints and permissions ABOUT

THIS ARTICLE CITE THIS ARTICLE STEIN, R., MATTHEWS, P. Differences in Variability of Discharge Frequency between Primary and Secondary Muscle Spindle Afferent Endings of the Cat. _Nature_

208, 1217–1218 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/2081217a0 Download citation * Issue Date: 18 December 1965 * DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2081217a0 SHARE THIS ARTICLE Anyone you share the

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