The Journal of Neurophysiology Vol. 80 No. 2 August 1998, pp. 667-679
Copyright ©1998 The American Physiological Society

Dorsal Horn Cells Connected to the Lissauer Tract and Their Relation to the Dorsal Root Potential in the Rat

Malcolm Lidierth and Patrick D. Wall

Sherrington School of Physiology, St. Thomas's Campus, London SE1 7EH, United Kingdom

Lidierth, Malcolm and Patrick D. Wall. Dorsal horn cells connected to the Lissauer tract and their relation to the dorsal root potential in the rat. J. Neurophysiol. 80: 667-679, 1998. We have examined the role of dorsal horn cells that respond to Lissauer tract stimulation in regulating primary afferent depolarization (PAD). PAD was monitored by recording the dorsal root potential (DRP) in the roots of the lumbar cord. Recordings were made of the discharges of Lissauer tract-responsive cells, and their discharges were correlated with the DRPs occurring spontaneously and those evoked by stimulation. Electrical microstimulation of the Lissauer tract (<10 µA; 200 µs) was used to activate the tract selectively and evoke a characteristic long-latency DRP. Cells that were excited by Lissauer tract stimulation were found in the superficial laminae of the dorsal horn. They exhibited low rates of ongoing discharge and responded to Lissauer tract stimulation typically with a burst of impulses with a latency to onset of 5.6 ± 2.7 ms (mean ± SD) and to termination of 13.6 ± 4.1 ms (n = 105). Lissauer tract-responsive cells in L₅ were shown to receive convergent inputs from cutaneous and muscle afferents as they responded to stimulation of the sural nerve (100%, n = 19) and the nerve to gastrocnemius (95%, n = 19). The latency of the response to sural nerve stimulation was 3.7 ± 1.5 ms and to gastrocnemius nerve stimulation, 8.3 ± 3.6 ms. Stimulation through a microelectrode at a depth of 1.5 mm in the sensorimotor cortex (100 µA, 200 µs) evoked a response in 17 of 31 Lissauer tract-responsive cells (55%) with a latency to onset of 21.9 ± 2.8 ms (n = 17). Stimulation of the sural nerve, nerve to gastrocnemius or sensorimotor cortex was shown to depress the response of Lissauer tract-responsive cells to a subsequent Lissauer tract stimulus. The ongoing discharges of Lissauer tract-responsive cells were correlated to the spontaneous DRP using spike-triggered averaging. Of 123 cells analyzed in this way, 117 (95%) were shown to be correlated to the DRP. In addition, the peaks of spontaneous negative DRPs in spinally transected animals were detected in software. Perievent time histograms triggered from these peaks showed the discharge of Lissauer tract-responsive cells to be correlated to the spontaneous DRPs in 57 of 62 cells (92%) recorded. We conclude that these data provide compelling evidence that the Lissauer tract, and the dorsal horn cells that it excites, mediate the PAD evoked from multiple neural pathways.

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