the purpose of the this study was to investigate the effect of direct current on montoneuron reflex exitability. thirty six subjects (18 males, 18 females) 19.36 years of age ( x= 24.06, sd= 3.63) participated in this study. the reflex excitability of soleus motoneruons was assessed by measuring the amount of change in the peak to peak ampitude of the h-reflex before and after direct current wa...

Previous studies have demonstrated that the voltage-dependent Ca2+ current recorded from the cell body of the crayfish abdominal motoneuron, F3, undergoes a long-term reduction as a result of increased impulse activity. The properties of the Ca2+ channels undergoing this long-term change were examined with the use of two-electrode voltage-clamp techniques. The Ca2+ current was activated at -50 ...

Motoneurons from E14 rat embryos have been retrogradely labeled with the carbocyanine derivative dil and purified 12-fold by centrifugation on a density gradient made of Nycodenz, as assessed by the increase in CAT activity per cell and in the percentage of dil-labeled cells. A 20- to 36-fold purification was achieved by the microdissection of the labeled lumbar motor columns followed by densit...

We study the integration of multisensory and central input at the level of an identified fly motoneuron, the ventral cervical nerve motoneuron (VCNM) cell, which controls head movements of the animal. We show that this neuron receives input from a central neuron signaling flight activity, from two identified wide-field motion-sensitive neurons, from the wind-sensitive Johnston organ on the ante...

Motoneuron populations possess a range of intrinsic excitability that plays an important role in establishing how motor units are recruited. The fact that this range collapses after axotomy and does not recover completely until after reinnervation occurs suggests that muscle innervation is needed to maintain or regulate adult motoneuron excitability, but the nature and identity of underlying me...

Synaptic plasticity involves the modulation of synaptic connections in response to neuronal activity via multiple pathways. One mechanism modulates synaptic transmission by retrograde signals from the post-synapse that influence the probability of vesicle release in the pre-synapse. Despite its importance, very few factors required for the expression of retrograde signals, and proper synaptic t...

We describe neuromuscular hysteresis - the dependence of muscle force on recent motoneuron activity - in the body wall muscles of larval Sarcophaga bullata and Drosophila melanogaster. In semi-intact preparations, isometric force produced by a train of nerve impulses at a constant rate was significantly less than that produced by the same train of stimuli with a brief (200 ms) high-frequency bu...

22 Fast glutamatergic transmission via ionotropic receptors is critical for the generation of 23 locomotion by spinal motor networks. In addition, glutamate can act via metabotropic 24 glutamate receptors (mGluRs) to modulate the timing of ongoing locomotor activity. In the 25 present study, we investigated whether mGluRs also modulate the intensity of motor output 26 generated by spinal motor ...

Coherence between the bioelectric activity of sensorimotor cortex and contralateral muscles can be observed around 20 Hz. By contrast, physiological tremor has a dominant frequency around 10 Hz. Although tremor has multiple sources, it is partly central in origin, reflecting a component of motoneuron discharge at this frequency. The motoneuron response to ~20 Hz descending input could be altere...

The fatal neurodegenerative disorders amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal muscular atrophy are, respectively, the most common motoneuron disease and genetic cause of infant death. Various in vitro model systems have been established to investigate motoneuron disease mechanisms, in particular immortalized cell lines and primary neurons. Using quantitative mass-spectrometry-based proteomics,...