Relationship between Changes in Muscle Volume and Muscle Action Potential

Abstract

THE method which was developed for measuring small rapid changes in volume occurring in a muscle during a single twitch¹ has been applied to the case of a frog sartorius muscle immersed in hypertonic Ringer's solution. As reported by various authors, one of the principal effects of hypertonic Ringer's solution on a muscle is to eliminate the twitch tension on stimulation, but not to interfere with the propagation of the muscle action potential. This provides a method of determining whether or not the previously reported muscle volume changes are a direct consequence of the action potential and are thus not connected with contraction as such.