CiteULike is a free online bibliography manager. Register and you can start organising your references online.

Further evidence for synaptic actions of muscle spindle secondaries in the middle lumbar segments of the cat spinal cord. Export

J Physiol, Vol. 402 (August 1988), pp. 671-686.

Citation Format

[Posts]

View FullText article


jcohenadad's tags for this article

animal peripheral-nerves spinal-cord

X Reviews [Write a review of this article]

X Find related articles from these CiteULike users

X Find related articles with these CiteULike tags

X Posting History

X Abstract

1. The aim of this study has been to investigate the receptor origin of postsynaptic actions evoked by group II muscle afferents in mid-lumbar segments of the cat spinal cord. The experiments tested the hypothesis that the afferents involved were the secondary endings of muscle spindles. 2. Spindle afferents were activated by contractions of intrafusal muscle fibres which were induced by electrical stimulation of fusimotor axons in the distal parts of transected ventral roots by one to three stimuli at 150-500 stimuli/s. A separate series of experiments has shown that such stimuli are effective in activating a considerable proportion of muscle spindle secondaries when contractions of extrafusal muscle fibres are eliminated by differential fatigue of these fibres, provided that several fusimotor axons are stimulated simultaneously. 3. Extracellular field potentials were recorded in the dorsal horn, at such locations where synaptic actions were evoked by electrical stimulation of group II but not group Ia muscle spindle or group Ib tendon organ afferents of pretibial flexors. Effects of activation of spindle afferents following stimulation of fusimotor axons were then compared with effects evoked by electrical stimulation of group II afferents of anterior tibial or extensor digitorum longus nerves and by small stretches of these muscles. 4. Distinct field potentials were evoked by stimulation of ventral root fibres at all locations at which field potentials were obtained from group II afferents stimulated electrically. The latencies of these field potentials were in both cases shorter in the dorsal horn than in the ventral horn. 5. The appearance of these field potentials was not related to contractions of extrafusal muscle fibres and was also observed when these contractions were practically eliminated. Furthermore, their threshold and similar dependence on a potentiating effect of two to three stimuli, as found for single secondaries, allow them to be attributed to secondary endings of muscle spindles.


X BibTeX record

X RIS record


Privacy Statement | Terms & Conditions
CiteULike organises scholarly (or academic) papers or literature and provides bibliographic (which means it makes bibliographies) for universities and higher education establishments. It helps undergraduates and postgraduates. People studying for PhDs or in postdoctoral (postdoc) positions. The service is similar in scope to EndNote or RefWorks or any other reference manager like BibTeX, but it is a social bookmarking service for scientists and humanities researchers.