An electrophysiological study of trigeminal commissural interneurons in the anaesthetized rabbit.

The physiological characteristics of intertrigeminal area, nucleus oralis tau and supratrigeminal interneurons terminating in the contralateral-trigeminal motor nucleus were studied. Their antidromic conduction velocities were found to be between 3.7 and 16.3 m/s and most units had ipsilateral oral and peri-oral low threshold mechanoreceptive fields. Many received convergent inputs from both mandibular and maxillary divisions of the trigeminal nerve as well as the sensorimotor cortex.