The brief and the prolonged facilitatory effects of unmyelinated afferent input on the rat spinal cord are independently influenced by peripheral nerve section.

Single C-fibre strength stimuli applied to the sciatic nerve in the decerebrate spinal rat evoke three separate bursts of activity in posterior biceps/semitendinosus flexor alpha motorneurones which are associated with the arrival in the spinal cord of volleys in the A-beta, A-delta and C-afferent fibres. Repetitive stimulation of the sciatic nerve at 1 Hz for 20 s generates a progressive wind-up of response and an after-discharge lasting up to 10 s. Twelve to fourteen days after section of the sciatic nerve, stimuli applied central to the section evoke a larger than normal response in the posterior biceps/semitendinosus flexor motorneurones and repetitive stimulation (1 Hz, 20 s) produces an after-discharge which is four times longer than that produced by stimulation of the intact nerve. In addition to the direct excitatory effects of sciatic nerve stimulation on the flexor motorneurones which lasts for seconds, conditioning stimuli to the sciatic nerve at C-fibre strength (1 Hz, 20 s) produce a facilitation of the flexor reflex evoked by a standard pressure stimulus to the ipsilateral and contralateral toes which lasts for 70 min. However, although the direct excitatory effects of stimulating a sectioned sciatic nerve on the posterior biceps/semitendinosus flexor motorneurones are exaggerated, the facilitation of the cutaneous flexion reflex evoked by stimulating sectioned sciatic nerves (1 Hz, 20 s) only lasts for 17 min. These results show that the mechanism which produces the rapid effects of sciatic nerve stimulation on the flexor reflex circuit can be separated from the mechanism which produces the prolonged facilitation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)