Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology · 1936 · 11 citations · 0 references
Life SciencesPhysiologyElectromagnetismElectrophysiologyNeurophysiologyNeural StimulationNeurostimulationPeripheral Nerve StimulationCurrentsElectrical Stimulation ThresholdsHigh-frequency StimulationLow-frequency StimulationNernst EquationNernst PotentialPolarizationSystematic Error Analysis
The stimulation of nerves and muscles by means of sinusoidal alternating currents aroused interest among physiologists when Nernst (1899) pointed out on the basis of his polarization theory that the ratio between the square of the intensity and the frequency is a constant. Since then many investigators, using wide frequency ranges and more accurate methods, have failed to obtain this constant ratio. There is a systematic error which occurs for high frequency stimulation where the threshold-frequency ratio tends to approach unity, but some data are reported which show that the “Nernst law” is approximately correct for low frequency stimulation (280 to 1000 c.p.s.) (Krüger, 1928).