COMMENT ON CONDUCTION-VELOCITY IN MUSCLE AND CUTANEOUS NERVE AFFERENTS IN HUMANS

The conduction velocities in muscle and cutaneous nerve afferents of c ats are considerably faster than those of comparable axons in humans. Texts on human physiology and neurophysiology tend to show conduction velocities and diameters derived from studies on cats, without stating that those values are not applicable to humans. Apart from showing th e need for a clearer attribution of the sources of data, the differenc es raise interesting questions about the functional significance of th e relatively small diameters and low conduction velocities of muscle a nd cutaneous nerve afferents in humans.