Concussive head injury producing suppression of sensory transmission within the lumbar spinal cord in cats.

This study examines the effects of concussive levels of a fluid-percussion head injury on sensory transmission within the lumbar spinal cord of the cat. Primary afferent depolarization (PAD) was suppressed for 2 to 5 minutes following injury, as assessed by dorsal root potentials and augmentation of antidromic dorsal root potentials, both evoked by stimulation of adjacent dorsal roots. Polysynaptic reflex discharges in ventral root potentials evoked by dorsal root stimulation were also profoundly suppressed during this same period, even when spontaneous and monosynaptic reflex discharges were facilitated. Changes in PAD produced by injury were abolished by spinal cord transection, but were not affected by midpontine transection. These findings suggest that concussive head injury can produce suppression of segmental sensory transmission by neurally mediated processes involving the bulbar brain stem. Recordings of dorsal root resting potentials, antidromic dorsal root potentials, and reductions of antidromic dorsal root potentials induced by tetanic root stimulation indicated that depressed segmental sensory function produced by injury was due to suppression of postsynaptic interneuronal transmission rather than to excitability changes in primary afferent fibers. Somatosensory cortical potentials evoked by dorsal root stimulation were profoundly depressed at the same time as segmental sensory transmission was suppressed, suggesting that suppressed segmental sensory transmission may also contribute to suppression of ascending sensory transmission. It is hypothesized that transmission failure of interneuronal systems in the initial period following insult may be a general response occurring in wide areas of the central nervous system, and not restricted to areas to which mechanical stress is directly applied. This response pattern may result from indiscriminate activation of interconnected excitatory and inhibitory elements of interneuronal systems.