The discharge characteristics of various types of muscle afferents in response to mechanical and chemical painful stimulation were studied in cats anaesthetized with chloralose. In a few experiments, heat was used as an additional stimulus. The results indicate that only among the fibre groups III and IV, units are regularly found that have high thresholds on mechanical and thermal stimulation, and that response to administration of algesic agents in pain-producing doses. The response behaviour of individual group III and group IV afferent units to the various stimuli was very similar, but when the fibre populations are compared, the group III afferents appeared to be more sensitive to the mechanical and chemical stimuli of this study. It is concluded that both the fibre groups III and IV include afferent units possessing receptive properties enabling them to serve as muscular nociceptors.
在使用水合氯醛麻醉的猫身上，研究了各类肌肉传入神经对机械性和化学性疼痛刺激的放电特性。在少数实验中，热被用作额外刺激。结果表明，仅在III类和IV类纤维组中，能经常发现对机械性和热刺激具有高阈值且对致痛剂量的镇痛剂有反应的单位。单个III类和IV类传入神经单位对各种刺激的反应行为非常相似，但当比较纤维群体时，III类传入神经对本研究中的机械性和化学性刺激似乎更敏感。得出的结论是，III类和IV类纤维组均包含具有感受特性的传入神经单位，使其能够充当肌肉伤害感受器。
