Synaptic transmission was measured at visualized terminal varicosities of the motor axon providing the sole excitatory innervation of the "opener" muscle in walking legs of crayfish (Procambarus clarkii Girard). Two questions were addressed: 1) How uniform is quantal emission at different locations along terminals innervating a single muscle fiber, and 2) can differences in quantal emission account for the different excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) amplitudes generated by terminals localized in defined regions of the muscle? Extracellular "macropatch" electrodes were placed over individual varicosities, viewed after brief exposure to a fluorescent dye, and synaptic currents were recorded to determine quantal content of transmission. Along terminals supplying a single muscle fiber, nonuniform release was found: Varicosities closer to the point of origin of the terminal branch released more transmitter than those located more distally. Quantal content was higher for varicosities of the muscle's proximal region (where large EPSPs occur) than for varicosities of the central region (where small EPSPs occur). The probability of transmitter release per synapse is estimated to be greater for the proximal varicosities. At low frequencies of stimulation, quantal content per muscle fiber is two to four times larger in the proximal region. Taken in conjunction with a twofold higher mean input resistance for the proximal muscle fibers, the difference in quantal content can account for a four- to eightfold difference in EPSP amplitude. The observed mean EPSP amplitude is at least eight times larger in the proximal region. We discuss factors contributing to differences in EPSP amplitudes.

This paper contributes to inquiries into the genealogy of governmentality and the nature of secularization by arguing that pastoralism continues to operate in the algorithmic register. Drawing on Agamben’s notion of signature, I elucidate a pair of historically distant yet archaeologically proximate affinities: the first between the pastorate and algorithmic control, and the second between the absconded God of late medieval nominalism and the authority of algorithms in the cybernetic age. I support my hypothesis by attending to the signaturial kinships between, on the one hand, temporality and authority in our contemporary conjuncture, and, on the other, obedience and submission in Christian thought from late antiquity and the late Middle Ages. I thereby illustrate the hidden genealogical continuities between theological-pastoral technologies of power and technocratic-algorithmic modalities of governance. I conclude by suggesting that medieval counter-conducts may be redeployed in our present circumstances for emancipatory ends.