Group Ia Muscle Spindle Afferents Research Articles

Autogenetic inhibition of motoneurones by impulses in group Ia muscle spindle afferents.

1. Inhibitory post-synaptic potentials evoked by adequate stimulation of group Ia muscle spindle afferents of homonymous and synergistic muscles and by selective electrical stimulation of tendon organ afferents were analysed in motoneurones of triceps surae and plantaris. 2. Selective activation of Ia afferents was verified to occur with brief stretches of triceps surae and plantaris 35 micrometer or less in amplitude with an initial muscle tension of 5 N; stretches of 30--35 micrometer were estimated to activate 80--90% of Ia afferents in these muscles. Under the same conditions the lowest thresholds for group Ib tendon organ afferents were about 40 micrometer. 3. Stretches less than or equal to 30 micrometer evoked i.p.s.p.s in 80% of triceps surae and plantaris motoneurones; lowest thresholds for evoking i.p.s.p.s wef triceps surae and plantaris motoneurones; lowest thresholds for evoking i.p.s.p.s were 10 micrometer or less. However, such low thresholds for stretch-evoked i.p.s.p.s, lower than the thresholds for activation of Ib afferents, were found mainly in spinalized, unanaesthetized (after decerebration) or lightly anaesthetized animals. The latencies of these i.p.s.p.s indicated disynaptic and trisynaptic coupling between Ia afferents and motoneurones. The i.p.s.p.s were evoked (i) from the homonymous and synergistic muscles stretched together, (ii) from the homonymous muscles alone and (iii) from the synergistic muscles alone. 4. Control experiments showed that i.p.s.p.s could be evoked by stretches sub-threshold for discharging motoneurones, thus showing that those i.p.s.p.s were not mediated by Renshaw cells. The stretch-evoked i.p.s.p.s disappeared after sectioning the nerves from the corresponding muscles, further excluding their mediation by afferents other than group Ia afferents from thf stretched muscle. 5. In order to selectively activate tendon organ afferents, thresholds for excitation of Ia afferents by electrical stimuli were increased to a level above the threshold for Ib afferents by prolonged muscle vibration (Coppin, Jack & MacLennan, 1970). I.p.s.p.s evoked by stimuli near threshold for Ib afferents appeared with latencies indicating disynaptic coupling. Later (trisynaptic) components of Ib i.p.s.p.s required somewhat stronger stimuli. 6. Amplitudes of Ia i.p.s.p.s evoked by muscle stretches activating about 80% of muscle spindle afferents were compared with amplitudes of Ib i.p.s.p.s due to less than 50% of tendon organ afferents of the same muscles. The Ia i.p.s.p.s were much smaller (16--35%) than the Ib i.p.s.p.s. The amplitudes of such Ia and Ib i.p.s.p.s constituted about 10 and 25--66%, respectively, of the maximal i.p.s.p.s evoked by electrical stimulation of all group I afferents. 7. We conclude that inhibition of motoneurones may be evoked from Ia muscle spindle afferents from homonymous and synergistic muscles as well as from Ib tendon organ afferents...

Crossed disynaptic inhibition of sacral motoneurones.

1. Intracellular recording was made from motoneurones in lower sacral (S2 and S3) segments of the spinal cord in cats, to analyse the neuronal organization of the inhibition evoked in these motoneurones from contralateral afferents. 2. It was confirmed that stimulation of the lowest threshold afferents of contralateral dorsal roots evokes i.p.s.p.s with latencies similar to those of disynaptic i.p.s.p.s. evoked from group Ia muscle spindle afferents in limb motoneurones. 3. The crossed disynaptic i.p.s.p.s in sacral motoneurones were found to be mediated by interneurones which are themselves inhibited by Renshaw cells, these interneurones and Renshaw cells being activated from the dorsal and ventral roots respectively, on the side of the body opposite to the location of the inhibited motoneurones. 4. In unanaesthetized decerebrate preparations crossed recurrent facilitation of sacral motoneurones was evoked with a time course similar to that of recurrent facilitation of lumbar motoneurones. It was taken to indicate a tonic inhibition of sacral motoneurones by interneurones responsible for their crossed disynaptic inhibition, and a disinhibition following stimulation of contralateral ventral roots. 5. In anaesthetized preparations crossed recurrent inhibition appeared, instead of the recurrent facilitation, in more than one half of the tested motoneurones. 6. A comparison of the input from ipsilateral and contralateral afferents to identified motoneurones of tail muscles with the input to pudendal motoneurones led to the conclusion that crossed disynaptic inhibition is evoked specifically in tail motoneurones. 7. Intracellular staining of sacral motoneurones with horseradish peroxidase revealed that the tail motoneurones and others with crossed disynaptic inhibition differ from the pudendal motoneurones in their location and in a number of morphological features; tail motoneurones are larger, they have differently directed dendrites and they show more extensively branched initial axon collaterals which appeared to ramify only within the ventral and lateral parts of the ipsilateral ventral horn. 8. One Renshaw cell which was stained with horseradish peroxidase was found to project contralaterally, after giving a number of axon collaterals ipsilaterally.

Recurrent inhibition from motor axon collaterals of ventral spinocerebellar tract neurones.

AbstractRecurrent inhibition from motor axon collaterals was searched for in intracellularly recorded ventral spinocerebellar tract (VSCT) neurones in the cat. A small proportion of the investigated cells received inhibition on antidromic stimulation of ventral roots. The IPSP was evoked by a‐fibres, had a segmental latency indicating a disynaptic linkage from motor axon collaterals and a duration of about 50 ms. The inhibited cells received monosynaptic excitation from group Ia muscle spindle afferents. The inhibition could be demonstrated also on the VSCT mass discharge evoked by stimulation of Ia afferents. The ventral roots, giving rise to the inhibition in a given VSCT cell, were the same as the ventral roots which give recurrent inhibition in a‐motoneurones and Ia inhibitory interneurones excited by Ia afferents of the same muscle as the VSCT cell. The results indicate that Renshaw cells, terminating on a‐motoneurones and Ia inhibitory interneurones, also send collaterals to some VSCT neurones. This finding strongly supports the idea that the VSCT relays information about the transmission in intemeuronal inhibitory reflex pathways to motoneurones (Lundberg 1971).