Q.List the properties of the nerve fibres.
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Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Nerve fibres show excitability, conductivity, a threshold, summation, all-or-none firing, a refractory period, synaptic delay/fatigue, and variable conduction velocity.
Nerve fibres share a defined list of physiological properties.
Step 1. Excitability (irritability) -- the polarised membrane's ability to sense a stimulus and become active; conductivity -- the ability to then transmit that excitation.
Step 2. A stimulus must reach a minimum threshold intensity to be effective; a subliminal (weak) stimulus produces no effect, while a supraliminal (strong) one produces the same size of impulse as threshold.
Step 3. Summation effect -- several rapid, individually sub-threshold stimuli can add up to trigger an impulse.
Step 4. All-or-none law -- a nerve either conducts the impulse fully along its length or not at all.
Step 5. Refractory period -- a brief interval (about a millisecond) after firing during which the nerve cannot respond to a second stimulus, however strong. …
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