Synaptic efficacy of inhibitory synapses and repetitive firing in the reinnervating trigeminal and hypoglossal motoneurons

Abstract

The synaptic efficacy and repetitive firing in masseteric motoneurons after the self-union operation and in tongue protruder motoneurons after their cut axons were reunited to tongue retractor muscles, the styloglossus muscle, were studied in cats. To ensure the correct identification of reinnervating motoneurons, the muscle response produced by an induced spike in a motoneuron by intracellularly injected depolarizing current was recorded. In both masseteric and tongue protruder motoneurons there were no differences on the patterns of postsynaptic potentials produced in reinnervating and non-reinner-vating motoneurons by peripheral nerve stimulation, suggesting that the recovery of the synaptic efficacy of inhibitory synapses is time-dependent rather than muscle reinnervation. However, the present study demonstrated that the recovery of processes that control rhythmical firing of motoneurons is probably dependent on muscle reinnervation.