title: The responses of neurones of the superficial dorsal horn to ionophoretically applied glutamate ion.
abstract: Extracellular spikes were recorded from neurones in the marginal zone and substantia gelatinosa of the cat lumbar spinal cord using low-noise carbon fibre microelectrodes. Ionophoretic ejection of glutamate ion was used to distinguish soma/dendrite from axon spikes. The receptive fields of the units and their response to percutaneous electrical stimulation was investigated. The majority of units had low-threshold receptive fields on the hair and skin of the toes and foot. The receptive fields indicated a convergence of different modality afferents onto single cells. Ionophoretic glutamate acted synergistically with the action of the natural transmitter from the low-threshold afferents onto the substantia gelatinosa cells.
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001369:Axons / Q000502:physiology; D002415:Cats; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D005971:Glutamates / Q000494:pharmacology*; D018698:Glutamic Acid; D006197:Hair; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D009619:Nociceptors / Q000502:physiology; D012867:Skin / Q000294:innervation; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D005971:Glutamates; D018698:Glutamic Acid