Myelinated Fibers and Saltatory Conduction in the Shrimp

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xviii

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2. Introduction

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 1-6

3. The Penaeus Shrimp as an Experimental Marine Animal for Neurobiological Study

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 7-17

4. Morphological Studies on the Myelin Sheath of Nerve Fibers

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 19-29

5. Biochemical Studies on Myelin of the Nervous System

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 31-34

6. Myelin Sheath with a New Type of Fine Structure Found in the Nervous System of Penaeus Shrimp, an Invertebrate

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 35-45

7. Two Unique Structures Discovered in the Myelinated Fibers of the Penaeus Shrimp

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 47-54

8. Studies on Impulse Conduction of Nerve Fibers

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 55-64

9. Saltatory Conduction Found in the Nervous System of Two Model Invertebrates, the Shrimp (Penaeus) and the Earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris)

   • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

   Pages 65-76

10. Experimental Confirmation of the Saltatory Conduction Hypothesis

    • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

    Pages 77-82

11. Three Mechanisms or Strategies for Increasing Conduction Velocity of Nerve Fibers

    • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

    Pages 83-90

12. Ultrahigh Conduction Velocity Found in the Medial Giant Fibers of Penaeus chinensis and Penaeus japonicus

    • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

    Pages 91-96

13. Remarks on the Evolution of Myelin Sheath, Glial Cells, Nodal Structure, and Conduction Function of Nerve Fibers

    • Ke Xu, Susumu Terakawa

    Pages 97-100

14. Back Matter

    Pages 101-110

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In 1961, neurobiologists found that the conduction velocity of the nerve impulse in the giant nerve fiber of the Penaeus shrimp abdominal nerve cord was over 200 m/s, the highest speed of information transmission ever observed in the animal kingdom. The peculiar myelin sheath with its unique nodal structure and the electrical properties of the nerve fibers of the shrimp have continued to be investigated for a quarter of century and are now fully described in this book. The investigation dispels the commonly held belief that the fastest recorded impulse conduction is about 120 m/s in the thickest vertebrate myelinated nerve fibers. In the shrimp, researchers found a completely novel type of functional node in the giant fiber which they designated as the fenestration node. In portions of the myelinated fiber, the fenestration node furnished the sites of excitation. Also discovered was a new strategy for increasing impulse conduction in the shrimp. The book includes a section on the formation of the fenestration node and the discovery of a strategy that allows the shrimp to escape its predators by an action of the fastest velocity. The data presented in this volume on the myelin sheath of invertebrates present a new direction for this field and a rich source of information for neurobiologists worldwide.

• Action potential
• Axon
• Fenestration node
• Ion channel
• Myelin sheath
• Velocity of impulse

• Shanghai Institute of Physiology Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

  Ke Xu

• Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Medical Photonics Research Center, Hamamatsu, Japan

  Susumu Terakawa

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