Figure 4.

Results of Blocking Experiments with Ca²⁺ Ion Depletion

(A) Blocking experiment results for bare electrode and ISM-coated electrode. The blocking current is applied after the third stimulation pulse for four or five pulse duration. The current needed for full blocking decreases from 9 to 5 μA using ISM-coated electrode.

(B) Comparison of blocking current values for bare electrode, PVC-coated electrode, and ISM-coated electrode (n = 3). The values are normalized with respect to bare electrode. The currents needed to obtain full blocking are very similar for the PVC-coated and the bare electrodes, whereas there is 38% decrease for the ISM-coated electrode. V_s = 90 mV (stimulus), I_b = 1 μA → 100 μA in 1-μA step (DC blocking), t_p = 1 ms (pulse width), f = 1 Hz (pulse frequency), n.s., not significant, ***p < 0.001, error bars represent 2 SD.

(C) Average and standard deviation of contractile force (mN) measured for varying blocking current (μA) in log scale for bare electrode and ISM-coated electrode obtained from the results in (A).

(D) Average and standard deviation of contractile force twitch width (ms) measured for varying blocking current (μA) for the bare electrode and ISM-coated electrode obtained from the results in (A). First large and then small axons are blocked with ISM-coated electrode.