Increased receptive field size of dorsal horn neurons following chronic spinal cord hemisections in cats

Abstract

The somatotopic organization of the 17 dorsal horn was studied using extracellular recordings in normal cats, and in cats with acute or chronic spinal cord hemisection at T13, sparing the dorsal columns. Based on data concerning recovery of function and collateral sprouting of afferents following hemisections, we predicted that the lesion would result in increases in receptive field size and decreases in the specificity of the somatotopic map. In normal animals, the usual mediolateral, rostrocaudal and dorsoventral somatotopic sequences were found. Following acute hemisections (6 h–5 days), there were changes in spontaneous and evoked activity, but receptive field sizes and somatotopic organization remained unchanged. Following chronic hemisections (88–174 days), proximal hindlimb receptive fields in the lateral dorsal horn ipsilateral to the lesion increased dramatically in size and were significantly larger than similar receptive fields on the contralateral side. The largest of these fields extended from the dorsal midline to the middle of the foot. Receptive field sizes elsewhere in the dorsal horn remained unchanged, as did somatotopic organization in general. These findings indicate that hemisections result in a complex series of changes consisting of an early stage of anatomically generalized changes in excitability and a later stage of highly localized changes in receptive field size. Possible mechanisms for these changes, as well as their relationship to recovery of function, are discussed.