Bücher von Gerta Vrbova

In the second century, Galen recognized that nerve and muscle were functionally inseparable since contraction of muscle occurred only if the nerves supplying that muscle were intact.

The first evidence that electrical changes can cause muscles to contract was p- vided by Galvani (1791). Thus, elect- cal activity graduated from a simple mechanism that is used to elicit muscle c- traction, to a system that could induce permanent changes in muscles and modify most of its characteristic properties.

This thorough, advanced review of the interactions between motoneurones and muscles in vertebrates discusses the significance of nerve-muscle interactions for the normal development and maintenance of the vertebrate neuromuscular system and reviews the consequences of their disruption.