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American Zoologist 1973 13(2):321-330; doi:10.1093/icb/13.2.321
© 1973 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Function of Peripheral Inhibitory Axons in Insects

K. G. PEARSON
Department of Physiology, University of Alberta Edmonton, Canada

There are now many examples in insects of axons which elicit hyperpolarizing junctional potentials in the muscle fibers they innervate. With the muscles bathed in haemolymph, electrical stimulation of these axons causes a decrease in the magnitude of slow contractions. This property allows them to be defined as inhibitory. Although inhibitory axons have the ability to regulate the magnitude of maintained slow contractions, there is little evidence that this is their normal function. The inhibitory axons supplying at least three insect muscles function to increase the rate of relaxations following each contraction of a rhythmic sequence. Moreover, when the haemolymph potassium concentration is high, some inhibitory axons probably ensure complete relaxation between rhythmic contractions by preventing potassium contractions in tonic muscle fibers. There is no convincing evidence that inhibitory axons can facilitate muscular contractions by becoming active immediately before the excitatory input.


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