Lecture 23 - Spinal Reflexes - Krakauer
Lecture 23 - Spinal Reflexes - Krakauer
Lecture 23 - Spinal Reflexes - Krakauer
Introduction
1. The place of spinal reflex circuits in the motor hierarchy.
2. For the accurate control of movement, a continuous flow of sensory information is
important both visually and from receptors in the moving part itself. Any type of
receptor in the moving body part that can give movement or position information is
called a proprioceptor. These include the muscle spindle, the golgi tendon organ
(GTO), cutaneous receptors, and joint receptors.
- The GTO (Box 36-3) lies in series with the muscle and tendon and is sensitive to
changes in tension.
- The muscle spindle (Box 36-1A) lies in parallel with the muscle and tendon and is
sensitive to changes in length. There are up to 500 muscle spindles in a given
muscle, depending on the muscle size, and each can range from 0.5 to 10 mm in
length. Thus, they make up 10-20% of the length of the muscle. Muscle spindles are
made up of specialized cells called intrafusal muscle fibers.
- Notice in Figure 36.3 that the spindles have both sensory and motor innervation. This
allows the CNS to alter the nature of incoming sensory information. Please take note
of the 3 types of intrafusal fiber, the two types of sensory afferent, and the two types
of motor neurons (called gamma to distinguish them from alpha motor neurons
innervating the extrafusal muscle fibers).
- Ramp and hold stretches of the soleus muscle in the decerebrate cat. Type II
afferents respond to constant changes in length whereas Type Ia fibers are sensitive
to rate of change of length. Importantly, they only show linear behavior for very
rapid small changes in length. This means that, overall, muscle spindles are non-
linear receptors because they only show linear behavior for small changes in length.
We will come back to this non-linear behavior later.
- Response of Ia to gamma activation (Fig 36-3C). Why have gamma activation?
Because it enables muscle spindles to continue sensing changes in muscle length (Fig
36.9).
3. Definition of a reflex: “ a stereotypical motor behavior, elicited by a unimodal
afferent, whose magnitude and timing are determined respectively by the intensity
and onset of the stimulus”
4. This definition is correct but does not convey the fact that the spinal circuits
responsible for reflexes can be used for voluntary behaviors. The idea that there is
one stereotypical response to one afferent input is too rigid because the reflex circuit
can be modified, through interneuronal connections, to produce an alternative output.
The essential point is that a given reflex circuit produces a stereotypical behavior
when stimulated under artificial circumstances such as a tendon tap or a decerebrate
preparation, but that the same circuit can act in conjunction with other modifiable
connections in a normal animal to produce a different behavior. Patients who suffer
spinal cord injuries will develop abnormally enhanced reflexes: they become spastic
and hyperreflexic. These reflexes are disengaged from descending control and are a
hindrance rather than useful.
Spasticity.
Hyperreflexia: due to strong facilitation of the monosynaptic Ia pathway
Hypertonus: increased resistance to velocity-dependent muscle stretch