Further Study of the Electrical and Mechanical Responses of Slow Fibers in Cat Extraocular Muscles

Electrical and mechanical responses have been obtained in situ and in vitro from the superior oblique muscle stimulated by single and repetitive electrical pulses, applied to the trochlear nerve. Two different types of muscle fibers are described, the twitch and the slow. The slow type is characterized electrically by the presence of junctional potentials, which have reversal potentials between -10 and -20 mv, and do not show propagated responses or spikes, during nerve stimulation. When the slow muscle fibers are repetitively stimulated in situ, a prolonged contraction is maintained during stimulation. At the time, the recorded electrical activity is produced locally, at the level of the neuromuscular junctions of the slow fibers. These results indicate that the contractile mechanism of the slow muscle fibers is activated locally and segmentally.