Physiol. Res. 49: 279-283, 2000

Dorsal Rhizotomy Changes the Spontaneous Neuronal Activity of Nuclei in the Medial Thalamus

Š. Vaculín, M. Franìk, R. Rokyta

Department of Normal, Pathological and Clinical Physiology, Charles University, Third Faculty of Medicine, Prague, Czech Republic

Received June 10, 1999
Accepted October 6, 1999


Summary
The aim of this study was to examine the influence of unilateral dorsal root section at the cervicothoracic level of the spinal cord on the spontaneous neuronal activity of medial thalamic nuclei in the rat. Single unit extracellular recordings from thalamic nuclei, nc. parafascicularis and nc. centralis lateralis, were obtained with glass micropipettes. The abnormal bursting activity of these nuclei following deafferentation was registered, although a correlation between the occurrence of this activity and the degree of autotomy behavior was not found. Such bursts were never observed in the studied thalamic nuclei of control rats.


Key words
Deafferentation · Medial thalamus · Single neuronal unit activity

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Š. Vaculín, Department of Normal, Pathological and Clinical Physiology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University, Ke Karlovu 4, 120 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic. e-mail: svaculin@lf3.cuni.cz

© 2000 by the Institute of Physiology, Czech Academy of Sciences