Decoding modulation of the neuromuscular transform.

When modulators of neuromuscular function alter the motor neuron spike patterns that elicit muscle contractions, it is predicted that they will also retune correspondingly the connecting processes of the neuromuscular transform. Here we confirm this prediction by analyzing data from the cardiac neuromuscular system of the blue crab. We apply a method that decodes the contraction response to the spike pattern in terms of three elementary building-block functions that completely characterize the neuromuscular transform. This method allows us to dissociate modulator-induced changes in the neuromuscular transform from changes in the spike pattern in the normally operating, essentially unperturbed neuromuscular system.