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Spinal and spino-bulbo-spinal neuronal mechanisms of transmission of somatomotor and visceromotor reflexes in the thoracic spinal cord

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Abstract

Early (spinal) and late (spino-bulbo-spinal) responses of interneurons in segments T9–10 to stimulation of the splanchnic and intercostal nerves and the dorso-lateral and ventral funiculi of the spinal cord (at the C3 level) were investigated in experiments on cats anesthetized with chloralose. The experiments showed that interneurons activated by spinal and spino-bulbo-spinal mechanisms differ in their distribution in the dorso-ventral plane of the spinal cord. Cells of layers I–V were excited by spinal pathways only, but those of layers VII and VIII by both spinal and spino-bulbo-spinal or only by the latter. Spino-bulbo-spinal effects were evoked in interneurons by both somatic and visceral afferent waves. A conditioning spino-bulbo-spinal wave evoked deep and prolonged inhibition of late activity induced by somatic or visceral afferent impulses. Early (spinal) activity was inhibited only partially under these circumstances. This inhibition was shown to take place with the participation of supraspinal structures. The possible types of spinal and supraspinal mechanisms of inhibition of early and late activity in spinal neurons are discussed.

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Authors
  1. P. Duda
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  2. A. P. Gokin
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  3. J. Pavlasek
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Additional information

Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia. A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev, USSR. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 5, No. 4, pp. 392–400, July–August, 1973.

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Duda, P., Gokin, A.P. & Pavlasek, J. Spinal and spino-bulbo-spinal neuronal mechanisms of transmission of somatomotor and visceromotor reflexes in the thoracic spinal cord. Neurophysiology 5, 299–305 (1973). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01063258

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01063258

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