Experimental Results

Abstract

Although it is impossible to single out one paper as being the first to study membrane noise, subsequent events in the field have isolated the 1950 note of Fatt and Katz on “biological noise” at the neuromuscular junction as a starting point. In their full paper in 1952 they write the following:

In the course of some earlier work, while recording from the surface of isolated muscle fibers, we occasionally noticed a spontaneous discharge of small monophasic action potentials. The potentials varied somewhat in size, but had a very consistent time course, rising rapidly in 1–2 msec, and declining more slowly, to one-half in about 3–4 msec. They were localized at one region of the fibre, and in their shape and spatial spread resembled the end-plate potential... Not much attention was paid to the phenomenon at the time, and it was suspected to be due to local injury...