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Static input-output relations in the spinal recurrent inhibitory pathway

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Abstract

The static discharge rate of Renshaw cells (studied in deafferented, intercollicularly decerebrate cats) has a nonlinear dependence on the frequency of trains of stimulus impulses to α-motor axons in the ventral root. This dependence is well described by a rectangular hyperbola that approaches saturation with increasing stimulus frequency. The tendency to saturate is independent of the number of motor axons exciting a Renshaw cell. On average, the stimulus frequency at which the discharge rate reaches half its saturation value lies between 10 and 15 Hz. The effect of Renshaw cell activity — measured as the antidromic inhibition of individual α-motoneurons — reflects the form of the static frequency characteristics. An electric circuit analog of the Renshaw cell membrane is presented which serves to explain the qualitative features of the static input-output relations; the nonlinearity is the result of synapses with linear properties acting together at the cell membrane.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physiologisches Institut (Lehrstuhl II), Universität Düsseldorf, D-4000, Düsseldorf, Federal Republic of Germany

    S. Cleveland, A. Kuschmierz & H.-G. Ross

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  1. S. Cleveland
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  2. A. Kuschmierz
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  3. H.-G. Ross
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Dedicated to Professor R. Granit, Stockholm, on the occasion of his 80th birthday

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Cleveland, S., Kuschmierz, A. & Ross, HG. Static input-output relations in the spinal recurrent inhibitory pathway. Biol. Cybern. 40, 223–231 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00453372

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00453372

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