Inhibition of rubro-spinal cells by somesthetic afferent activity.
A somesthetic inhibitory projection onto rubrospinal cells in the cat is described. It is suggested that the pathway, which is not dependent upon an intact cerebellum or motor cortex, travels through the dorsal columns of the spinal cord. The second order neurons seem to impinge upon inhibitory interneurons situated within the red nucleus itself. The burst activity in such interneurons might account for the IPSPs seen in rubro-spinal cells. In agreement with the idea that the red nucleus may be part of a feed-back loop through the periphery, the pathway described here could be the link giving suppression of rubral activity during some phases of limb movement.
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D005552:Forelimb / Q000294:innervation; D009433:Neural Inhibition; D009434:Neural Pathways; D009475:Neurons, Afferent / Q000502:physiology*; D012012:Red Nucleus / Q000502:physiology*; D013116:Spinal Cord / Q000502:physiology*