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Journal of Experimental Biology 50,387-403 (1969)
Published by Company of Biologists 1969

Membrane Properties of the Somatic Muscle (Obliquely Striated Muscle) of the Earthworm

T. HIDAKA ¹, Y. ITO ¹, and H. KURIYAMA ¹

¹ Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

1. The membrane properties of the longitudinal muscle fibre of the earthworm Pheretima communissima were investigated by intra- and extracellular stimulating methods.

2. The membrane potential was -35.4 mV., and spontaneous discharges with overshoot (mean +18 mV.) and after-hyperpolarization (-60 mV.) were recorded.

3. Tetrodotoxin (10^-7 g./ml.) blocked nervous activity but did not influence the spontaneous discharges or the spikes elicited in the muscle fibre by intracellular stimulation.

4. The critical membrane potential required to elicit a spike was not constant, and the falling phase of the spikes was markedly dependent on the level of the membrane potential.

5. The chronaxie, measured from the intensity-duration relation to elicit a spike by intracellular stimulation, was 55 msec.

6. When nervous activity was excluded the propagation of excitation in longitudinal muscles was decremental.

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