Summary
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1.
The catfishKryptopterus was stimulated with a.c.fields of various strengths and frequencies.
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2.
The responses of the afferent nerve fiber of the ampullary electroreceptors to these fields and the response of central units in the cerebellum to the same fields were measured and compared.
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3.
The primary afferent fibers are spontaneously active (50 to 90 imp./sec) and display greatest frequency modulation in response to imposed fields with frequencies of 3 to 5 Hz (Fig. 2).
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4.
The electroresponsive units in the cerebellum were classified into three main types according to their different spontaneous activities and their sensitivity maxima, which occur in different stimulus-frequency ranges.
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5.
Typea cerebellar units (13 neurons) have a low and irregular spontaneous activity (0.1 to 10 imp./sec) and, at 1 to 10 Hz stimulation, they are 10 to 30 times more sensitive to imposed fields than single primary fibers (Figs. 3, 4). The impulse frequency maximum lies at stimuli of 5 Hz (Fig. 7), but the largest numbers of impulses per period occur at 0.3 Hz or at lower frequencies (Figs. 3, 5).
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6.
Typeb units (4 neurons) have no spontaneous activity and are most sensitive to frequencies below 1 Hz; the longer the stimulus period, the more impulses per period occur (Figs. 4, 6) and the higher their frequency (Fig. 7).
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7.
The typec unit (one neuron) has a regular spontaneous activity which is best modulated with stimuli of 10 to 20 Hz (Fig. 8).
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Roth, A. Central neurons involved in the electroreception of the catfishKryptopterus . J. Comp. Physiol. 100, 135–146 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00613965
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00613965