Increased response to sural nerve input in the dorsal horn following chronic spinal cord hemisection.

Monosynaptic input from sural nerve afferents to dorsal horn neurons was mapped bilaterally using electrical stimulation in normal cats and cats with spinal cord hemisections. Animals hemisected 6 h-5 days previously did not differ significantly from normals and the sides of the cord did not differ in either group. In animals hemisected 88-182 days previously there were significantly more sites responsive to sural nerve input ipsilateral to the hemisection, than contralateral to it.