Motor responses evoked by microstimulation of cerebellar interpositus nucleus in cats submitted to dorsal rhizotomy.
In cats with C4-T2 unilateral dorsal rhizotomy, stimulation of interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum, ipsilateral to the deafferented side, elicits in forelimbs single muscle contractions, which display threshold, latencies and spatial-temporal characteristics similar to those of the muscular responses produced in the other forelimb, upon stimulation of interpositus nucleus of the intact side. Motor effects induced by the interpositus nucleus-stimulation on the deafferented side disappear following red nucleus lesions. Single muscle contractions triggered from interpositus nucleus are, therefore, mediated by impulses impinging on alpha-motoneurons, via the rubrospinal pathway.
D000344:Afferent Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000502:physiology*; D007839:Functional Laterality; D009043:Motor Activity; D009119:Muscle Contraction; D009121:Muscle Denervation; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology*