title: Direct excitatory interactions between spinal motoneurones of the cat.
abstract: 1. Ninety-seven spinal motoneurones were identified by their antidromic invasion following stimulation of the muscle nerve and submitted to a series of four tests to reveal a possible direct excitation between motoneurones. 2. Threshold differentiation, refractoriness, hyperpolarization and collision revealed antidromically induced depolarizations in fourteen of the ninety-seven tested motoneurones. 3. The parameters of the antidromically induced depolarizations indicate a short latency, a low amplitude and independence with regard to the membrane polarization. 4. It is concluded that the antidromically induced depolarizations reached the impaled motoneurone via a route other than its own axon. 5. The mechanism may involve either electrotonic interactions between neighbouring motoneurones or excitatory recurrent collaterals between synergist motoneurones.
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D009046:Motor Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009431:Neural Conduction; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology*