J Physiol Wellcome Trust-funded researchers
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
 QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     


J Physiol Vol 245, Issue 1 pp 1-12
Copyright © 1975 by The Physiological Society
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Muñoz-Martínez, E J
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Muñoz-Martínez, E J

Effects of activity in single sensory fibres on the discharge patterns of dorsal spinocerebellar tract cells.

E J Muñoz-Martínez

1. Electrical activity of dorsal spinocerebellar tract (DSCT) was recorded extracellularly and intracellularly in Clarke's column nucleus. 2.Trains of impluses were elicited in DSCT cells by static stretch of the hind limb muscles, and the distributions of intervals between the impulses were computed. These distributions were essentially similar before and after impalement of the cells with the micropipette, suggesting that cell injury caused by penetration was insignificant. 3. Patterns of synaptic activity revealed that the DSCT cells examined were innervated by a limited number of muscle afferents. 4. In some DSCT neurons, all excitatory post-synaptic potentials (e.p.s.p.s) elicited by a single fibre were suprathreshold, and e.p.s.p.s elicited by other afferents were usually subthreshold. These neurons discharge very regularly during muscle stretch, and the spike initiation followed nearly one-to-one relation in response to activity of the sensory fibre eliciting suprathreshold e.p.s.p.s. 5. The discharge pattern was irregular in other DSCT cells. In these cases, single sensory fibres evoked e.p.s.p.s. which did not always reach the firing threshold because of random fluctuation in their amplitude. 6. DSCT neurons often show low frequency discharges (about 10/sec) in the absence of sensory activation. In these conditions only small e.p.s.p.s. were detected (average, 0.53 mV) suggesting that the average membrane potential is very close (1-i mV) to the firing threshold. 7. It is concluded that the statistical properties of firing patterns in DSCT neurons activated by muscle afferents depend on (a) the large amplitude of e.p.s.p.s., (b) their firing threshold and (c) random fluctuations in the e.p.s.p.s. amplitude.







HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1975 The Physiological Society.