STUDIES OF SINGLE MUSCLE FIBRES

Abstract

The intact frog''s sartorius gives graded contractions of single fibres in response to graded intensities of stimuli. To evoke submaximal responses in a single fibre that is fresh and uninjured, the microelectrodes must not exceed a certain size, so that the localized stimulation of the single fibre is not too diffuse. Since the response is not independent of the stimulus intensity, upon direct microstimulation, the all-or-none law for the muscle, to that extent, is not valid.