Identification of common interneurons mediating pre- and postsynaptic inhibition in the cat spinal cord.

The spike-triggered averaging of dorsal and ventral root potentials permits the identification of two populations of interneurons in the intermediate nucleus of the cat spinal cord. One produced negative dorsal root potentials and inhibitory ventral root potentials, in some cases with monosynaptic latencies, suggesting that they mediate presynaptic inhibition of group I afferent fibers from muscles and postsynaptic inhibition of motoneurons. The other population mediated only nonreciprocal postsynaptic inhibition of motoneurons.