Excitability, chronaxie & rheobase, hair cell exciation

Saturday, 13 February 2021 11:30 AM

• Stimulus is a change in the

environment. It may be electrical,
chemical, physical, or mechanical.
• Excitable cells are the ones whose
membrane show excitation after
application of a stimulus.
• Not any stimulus of any strength can
bring about the excitation.
• An electrical stimulus has two
properties:- strength and duration.
1. strength of a stimulus: A stimulus
with rapidly rising strength is more
likely to cause excitation. Stimulus
with slowly rising strength is likely to
cause membrane accommodation;
i.e., threshold will be crossed yet AP is
not generated.
2. Duration of the stimulus: A stimulus
should be applied for an optimum
duration in order to cause excitation.

In case of an electrical stimulus, based

on the above two properties, there are
two definitions that should be
understood:
A. Rheobase: (term coined by Lapicque)
It is the weakest strength of the
stimulus that can bring about an
excitation, when applied for any
length of time to the tissue. In
practice, the weakest stimulus that
brings about a response is called as
threshold stimulus or liminal stimulus.
A stimulus having less than the
rheobase strength is called subliminal
stimulus. (Rheobase is an
inconvenient tool to express the
excitability of tissues, as the weakest
stimulus will have to be applied for a
LONG DURATION. Applying [2 X
rheobase] is convenient as the
response will be obtained in short
duration.)
WHAT IS A “RESPONSE”? In
experimental studies, muscle
contraction is taken as the response
elicited on application of stimulus.
B. Chronaxie: Time taken by a tissue to
excite when twice the rheobase
strength is applied is called chronaxie.
C. Utilization time: Time taken by a
tissue to elicit a response when a
stimulus of a rheobase strength is
applied.

[Fig: Strength-duration curve.]

Method:
A small stimulating electrode is placed
over the “motor point” (it is the point on
the skin which is closest to the point
where the motor nerve enters the
muscle.) Another electrode (called
“indifferent electrode”) is applied to the
skin at a distant region. Square pulses of
current of duration 0.01, 0.1, 1.0, 10,
and 100 milliseconds are applied
through the electrodes. The minimal
strength of the current that would
produce muscle contraction is noted
and the results plotted as a strength
duration curve for the most excitable
fibers in the motor nerve.
[Ref: Samson Wright’s Applied
Physiology; 13th edi.]

- Chronaxie is the measure of

excitability of a tissue.
- Shorter the chronaxie, more excitable
is the tissue (as it takes lesser time to
excite).
- Chronaxie depends primarily on the
density of voltage-gated Na+ channels
in the membrane of a cell.

• Adults have shorter chronaxies than

infants and children;
• Chronaxie of muscle fibers is much
longer than that of nerve fibers.
• Order of chronaxies:- myelinated
nerves < unmyelinated nerves
Skeletal muscle
< cardiac muscle < smooth muscle
Pale fibers < red
fibers
Chronaxie of a tissue is affected by
certain factors, viz.,
temperature (heat decreases and cold
increases the chronaxie, within
physiological limits),
drugs that influence the neuromuscular
transmission,
condition of the tissue (such as injury or
degeneration would alter the
chronaxie).

• Effect of injury on excitability:

- Strength-duration curve is obtained
after a motor nerve is injured. If it is a
partial injury to the nerve trunk, the
intact nerve fibers will elicit a
response. If all the fibers have been
injured and degenerated, the muscle
contraction can be observed only
after a direct stimulus applied to its
fibers.
- Since the chronaxie of muscle fibers is
longer than that of nerve fibers, the
strength-duration curve will be
shifted to the right.

• Chronaxie is increased in the tetany

(hypoparathyroidism).

• Hair cell in labyrinth is the most

excitable cell in the body. Reason:-
The transmembrane electrical
gradient across the hair cell
membrane is highest for any cell ~ +
150 mV. The flow of cations would
occur, during depolarization, with
highest rate across the hair cell
membrane.