ACTION POTENTIALS RECORDED FROM INSIDE A MAUTHNER CELL OF THE CATFISH

Abstract

1. With intracellular microelectrodes electric responses of the catfish Mauthner cell to antidromic stimulation were recorded. The responses were composed the parts, namely of brief cell-body responses and long dendritic responses.
2. The duration of the cell-body response was 1-1.5 msec. and that of the dendritic response longer than 7 msec.
3. Due to this great difference in the spike-duration and the difference in refractoriness between the cell body and the dendrites, multipe responses of the cell body were frequently observed during the course of a single dendritic response.
4. The possibility of injuring a neurone by insertion of a microelectrode was stressed.