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American Zoologist 1974 14(3):973-989; doi:10.1093/icb/14.3.973
© 1974 by The Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology
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Neurophysiology of Ganglia of Auerbach's Plexus

J. D. WOOD
Department of Physiology, University of Kansas Medical Center Kansas City, Kansas 66103

The enteric plexuses of the automatic nervous system may be considered, on the basis of both function and morphology, to be a simple integrative nervous system of vertebrate animals. Microelectrcde studies of single unit activity within enteric ganglia reveal four distinct types of ganglion cells distinguished on the basis of pattern of spike discharge. These are (i) burst-type units which spontaneously discharge bursts of spikes at periodic intervals; (ii) fast- and slowly-adapting mechanoreceptors; (iii) tonic-type units which respond to mechanical stimulation with prolonged, all-or-nothing trains of spikes; (iv) single-spike units which spontaneously discharge single action potentials at variable intervals. The enteric plexuses are adapted for control of the intestinal musculature which behaves as an electrical syncytium activated by myogenic pacemaker potentials. The mechanism of neural control is integration of continuous neurogenic inhibition of the inherently excitable musculature.


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