It could be detected in the nerve by the change of potential which accompanied it in fact Bernstein had already elaborated the “membrane hypothesis”which regards the impulse as a wave of surface disintegration spreading by reason of the electric disturbance which it creates. The disturbance due to an electric stimulus travelled at much the same rate as the natural signals, and it would produce similar effects on the muscles or on the central nervous system. It was already known that some kind of rapid wave, called the nerve impulse, could be set up in the nerve by an electric stimulus, and there was good reason to suppose that the signals normally transmitted were made up of similar impulses. In the closing years of the last century the improvement of the capillary electrometer had marked a new phase. I shall deal mainly with some of the results which have followed from this new technique, but the present state of our knowledge will be made clearer by a brief survey of the position as it was twenty years ago when I was a student in the Cambridge laboratories. It is little wonder therefore that progress in this branch of physiology has always been governed by the progress of physical technique and that the advent of the triode valve amplifier has opened up new lines in this, as in so many other fields of research. The signals which they transmit can only be detected as changes of electrical potential, and these changes are very small and of very brief duration. The nerves do their work economically, without visible change and with the smallest expenditure of energy. It can be answered because of a recent improvement in electrical technique. What kind of signals are these, and how are they elaborated in the same organs and nerve cells? The first part of this question would have been answered correctly by most physiologists many years ago, but now it can be answered in much greater detail. The signals travel rapidly over the long threads of protoplasm which form the sensory nerve fibres, and fresh signals are sent out by the motor fibres to arouse contraction in the appropriate muscles. The sense organs respond to certain changes in their environment by sending messages or signals to the central nervous system. Nobel Lecture, DecemThe Activity of the Nerve Fibres Share via Email: Edgar Adrian – Nobel Lecture Share this content via Email.

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Unity strength of an impulsive force