Medullary reticulospinal tract mediating the generalized motor inhibition in cats: I. Parallel inhibitory mechanisms acting on motoneurons and on interneuronal transmission in reflex pathways

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0306-4522(00)00586-8The present study was designed to elucidate the spinal interneuronal mechanisms of motor inhibition evoked by stimulating the medullary reticular formation. Two questions were addressed. First, whether there is a parallel motor inhibition to motoneurons and to interneurons in reflex pathways. Second, whether the inhibition is mediated by interneurons interposed in known reflex pathways. We recorded the intracellular activity of hindlimb motoneurons in decerebrate cats and examined the effects of medullary stimulation on these neurons and on interneuronal transmission in reflex pathways to them. Stimuli (three pulses at 10–60 μA and 1–10 ms intervals) delivered to the nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis evoked inhibitory postsynaptic potentials in α-motoneurons (n=147) and γ-motoneurons (n=5) with both early and late latencies. The early inhibitory postsynaptic potentials were observed in 66.4% of the motoneurons and had a latency of 4.0–5.5 ms with a segmental delay of more than 1.4 ms. The late inhibitory postsynaptic potentials were observed in 98.0% of the motoneurons and had a latency of 30–35 ms, with a peak latency of 50–60 ms. Both types of inhibitory postsynaptic potentials were evoked through fibers descending in the ventrolateral quadrant. The inhibitory postsynaptic potentials were not influenced by recurrent inhibitory pathways, but both types were greatly attenuated by volleys in flexor reflex afferents. Conditioning medullary stimulation, which was subthreshold to evoke inhibitory postsynaptic potentials in the motoneurons, neither evoked primary afferent depolarization of dorsal roots nor reduced the input resistance of the motoneurons. However, the conditioning stimulation often facilitated non-reciprocal group I inhibitory pathways (Ib inhibitory pathways) to the motoneurons in early (