Nonselective motor innervation of intrafusal fibers in muscle spindles of the rat.

Distributions of motor axons to different types of intrafusal fiber were reconstructed from serial 1-micron thick transverse sections of six poles of muscle spindle in the rat soleus. Motor axons innervated (dynamic) bag1 fibers, or (static) bag2 fibers in conjunction with chain fibers. However, approximately forty percent of axons that supplied the spindles synapsed on both bag1 and bag2 or bag1 and chain fibers. The significance of this co-innervation of dynamic and static intrafusal fibers is discussed relative to the general organization and function of mammalian spindles.