On the basis of experimental data [2] a model of electrical processes taking place on the receptor epithelium of the ampulla of Lorenzini was developed. The basic assumption made in the model is that the apical membrane of the receptor cell has a stationary current-voltage characteristic curve with a region of negative resistance. The model explains logically the unusual sign of the spike response of the ampullae (excitation on application of a cathode to the apical surface of the epithelium) and experimental data obtained by various workers [2,7–10], including some concerned with the most complex forms of electrical and spike responses.
I. P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the USSR, Leningrad. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 235–241, May–June, 1983.