On organization of a neuronal network in pathways from group II muscle afferents in feline lumbar spinal segments

The aim of the study was to verify the hypothesis that trisynaptic actions of group II muscle afferents upon motoneurones are, at least in part, mediated by dorsal horn interneurones exciting the same intermediate zone interneurones that are interposed in disynaptic pathways from group II afferents. Population EPSPs (field potentials) and responses of individual interneurones evoked by group II afferents in the dorsal horn and in the intermediate zone were analysed in order to assess the possibility of a causal relationship between them. When direct actions of group II afferents in the intermediate zone were abolished by presynaptic inhibition, distinct later components of field potentials and delayed interneuronal responses were induced at latencies 0.5-1 ms longer than those seen originally. Both the latency and a marked temporal facilitation define these later group II actions as being evoked disynaptically. Under the same conditions, single stimuli activated more than one half of dorsal horn interneurones, and the second and third stimuli activated all of these interneurones. Responses of dorsal horn interneurones preceded disynaptically evoked responses of intermediate zone interneurones. The study indicates that intermediate zone interneurones may be activated by group II afferents both directly and via dorsal horn interneurones and that synaptic actions of group II afferents upon these interneurones, and their subsequent actions upon motoneurones, may be modulated in parallel at the level of intermediate zone and dorsal horn interneurones.