STUDIES IN THE HUMAN NEURO-MUSCULAR MECHANISM

Abstract

The authors review the experimental evidence for autogenous inhibition as the cause of the "lengthening reaction." While not denying the possible existence of autogenous inhibition as a protective mechanism, they do not believe there is sufficient evidence that it produces the "lengthening reaction," to warrant the wide acceptance which this theory is accorded. In its place they advance the hypothesis of the subsidence of the afferent flow of nervous impulse as an explanation of the relaxation which occurs in the "lengthening reaction," as Fulton and Pi-Suner did for the silent period in the action currents of the "knee-jerk." The present authors accept the hypothesis of the parallel arrangement of the muscle fibers and the proprioceptive end-organs as a possible explanation of this subsidence.