Sensitization and habituation of dorsal horn cells in cats.

1. Extracellular recordings were obtained from spinal dorsal horn cells in acutely spinalized cats anaesthetized with sodium pentobarbitone. The dorsal horn cells studied responded to ipsilateral tactile stimulation of the central pad of the hind foot. Eleven short latency dorsal horn cells driven by electrical stimulation of the foot pad were studied intensively; these short latency dorsal horn cells all discharged within 1.5 msec of the arrival of an afferent volley at the dorsal root entry zone. Electrode tip sites were histologically verified to lie near the medial border of the dorsal horn in the seventh lumbar segment, in Rexed's laminae III and IV. 2. Electrical stimulation of the foot pad not only activated the dorsal horn cells studied, but also produced a reflex discharge which was monitored by recording from the ipsilateral first sacral ventral root, which had been sectioned intradurally and mounted on bipolar recording electrodes. Repeated stimulation of the foot pad at moderate intensities and frequencies (e.g. three times threshold for the ventral root response at 5 Hz) typically produced a transitory increase in the magnitude of the reflex discharge (sensitization) followed by a marked waning of the reflex magnitude (habituation). Within a few minutes following cessation of stimulation, the reflex magnitude returned to its prestimulation value. During repeated bouts of five hundred stimuli each, at frequencies from 1.0 to 10.0 Hz, and intensities 1.5-10.0 times reflex threshold, the firing pattern of a short latency dorsal horn cell was monitored along with the magnitude of the ventral root response. Changes in response patterns of the dorsal horn cells were compared to those of the reflex discharges. 3. The short latency dorsal horn cells fell into two distinct patterns of response. The firing pattern of six dorsal horn cells paralleled the response pattern of the reflex discharge; when the reflex increased in magnitude, each of these dorsal horn cells increased in number of responses per stimulus; when the reflex discharge decreased in magnitude, each of these dorsal horn cells decreased the number of responses per stimulus. These dorsal horn cells were characterized by the following: intermediate thresholds to tactile stimulation, comparable to that of the reflex discharge itself; relatively low numbers of responses per stimulus (mean: 1.3/stimulus); low spontaneous activity rates (once per 10 sec or less). 4. The firing patterns of the other class of short latency dorsal horn cells did not parallel the response pattern of the reflex discharge; these showed only a rather rapid, though moderate, decrease in responses per stimulus over the entire range of intensities and frequencies tested. These five dorsal horn cells were characterized by the following: thresholds of tactile stimulation considerably below that of the reflex discharge itself; bursts of responses following each stimulation (mean: 7...