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Spinal border cell origin of the ventral spinocerebellar tract

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Summary

  1. 1.

    Extra- and intracellular recording has been made in cats from the spinal border cells (SBCs) of Cooper and Sherrington (1940). The SBCs were identified by their location in the lateral part of the ventral horn in the lumbar segments 3–6 and by their antidromic invasion from the contralateral thoracic spinal cord.

  2. 2.

    The conduction velocity of SBC axons ranged from 40–140 m/sec with a mean of 85 m/sec.

  3. 3.

    Lesion experiments showed that the SBC axons ascend in the ventrolateral region of the spinal cord.

  4. 4.

    Of 90 SBCs tested, 85 were invaded antidromically by stimulation of the cerebellar cortex.

  5. 5.

    It is concluded that SBCs give rise to ventral spinocerebellar axons and suggested that they are the major source of this tract.

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This work was supported by the Swedish Medical Research Council (Project No. 14X-94-07C).

Swedish Medical Research Council Postdoctoral Fellow.

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Burke, R., Lundberg, A. & Weight, F. Spinal border cell origin of the ventral spinocerebellar tract. Exp Brain Res 12, 283–294 (1971). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237921

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00237921

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