Behavioural thermosensitivity after bilateral lesions of the lateral funiculi in the cervical spinal cord of the cat.

The behavioural thermosensitivity of six cats was measured before and after single stage, symmetrical, bilateral, surgical lesions of the cervical spinal cord. The lesions were aimed at an area in the most ventral parts of the dorsal halves of the lateral funiculi. Unilateral lesions of that area have previously been found to cause reproducible, although subtotal, contralateral thermosensory defects, which were attributed to interruption of the thermosensory spinothalamic pathway. The lesions of three of the present cats were found to be incomplete, and those animals showed no postoperative thermosensory deficiency. Two of the cats with complete lesions showed marked post-operative defects, especially immediately after the operations, but the third cat with a complete lesion showed no postoperative thermosensory defect at all. The differences between the last three animals have been compared to the irregularity of previous reports about thermosensitivity after spinal cord lesions in man and animals, and may depend on the testing technique, rather than differences of thermosensitivity per se.