Depolarization of group II muscle afferents by stimuli applied in the locus coeruleus and raphe nuclei of the cat.

1. Electrical stimuli applied in the locus coeruleus/subcoeruleus (LC/SC) and raphe nuclei produce a profound depression of transmission in reflex pathways from group II muscle afferents. The present experiments were performed to determine whether presynaptic inhibitory mechanisms contribute to these effects. 2. Changes in the excitability of afferent terminals to electrical stimuli have been used as an indication of primary afferent depolarization (PAD) produced by conditioning stimuli applied within the LC/SC and raphe nuclei and, for comparison, in the nucleus ruber. Group II afferents originating from ankle flexor muscles and terminating in the midlumbar segments were used for testing. 3. Clear changes in excitability were observed in fourteen of nineteen group II fibres in which the effects of conditioning stimuli applied in the LC/SC were tested and in twelve of seventeen fibres in which the effects of stimuli applied within the raphe nuclei were tested. By comparison, only one of the twelve fibres tested with conditioning stimuli applied to the nucleus ruber was found to be influenced. These effects matched those of the same conditioning stimuli on field potentials evoked by group II afferents at the location at which the terminals of group II fibres were stimulated. 4. Stimuli applied in the LC/SC and in the raphe nuclei both produced a mean decrease in threshold stimulus current of 19%. These effects are comparable to those produced by the most effective volleys in peripheral afferent which, in the same fibres, produced a mean decrease in threshold stimulus current of 24%. 5. In all cases (twelve) in which the effects of stimuli applied in the LC/SC and raphe nuclei were tested on the same group II fibre, either both or neither were found to be effective. This strengthens previous indications that some populations of neurones might be activated by stimuli applied in each of these regions of the brain. 6. In contrast to group II afferents, group Ia afferents investigated in the same experiments were only exceptionally affected. Of seven fibres tested with stimuli applied in the LC/SC, six with stimuli applied in the raphe nuclei and seven with stimuli applied in the nucleus ruber, only one fibre showed any clear change in threshold and this was a single fibre which was similarly affected by stimuli in all three sites. 7. It is concluded that presynaptic inhibitory mechanisms contribute to the depression of transmission in spinal reflex pathways from group II muscle afferents produced by stimulation in the LC/SC and raphe nuclei.