Integration in trigeminal premotor interneurones in the cat

Summary

Seventy-one (n = 71) premotor interneurones have been localized by extracellular recordings within the subnucleus-γ of the oral nucleus of the spinal trigeminal tract (NVspo-γ) in nineteen chloralose anaesthetized cats. The neurons were antidromically activated by microstimulation (minimum = 3μA) applied to the digastric motoneurone subnucleus of the trigeminal motor nucleus. Fifty-one (n = 51) of the interneurones were discharged from the ipsiand nineteen (n = 19) from the contralateral digastric subnucleus. One neurone out of four tested was antidromically activated from both stimulation sites suggesting a bifurcated axon. The identified premotor neurones had a unique convergence profile of oral and perioral primary afferents. Latency calculations indicated that at least 55% of these interneurones were monosynaptically activated by low stimulus strength applied to the inferior alveolar (minimum=1.0 T) and/or the lingual nerve (minimum=1.0 T). The thresholds for evoking the neuronal discharges coincided statistically with those required to evoke a jaw opening reflex response by stimulation of the same nerves. It is suggested that the specific group of NVspo-γ interneurones under different contexts mediates the disynaptic reflex and participates in the centrally and reflexly evoked “patterning” adjustments of the digastric jaw opening motoneurones during ongoing jaw movements. A companion paper reports the convergence of descending cortical, tectal and ascending cervical inputs, as well as of oro-facial and neck primary afferent inputs onto an unselected population of interneurones in the NVspo-γ (Westberg and Olsson 1991).