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Updated: Oct 7, 2026

In Vivo Electrophysiological Measurement of Compound Muscle Action Potential from the Forelimbs in Mouse Models of Motor Neuron Degeneration
Published on: June 15, 2018
Temporal facilitation of the flexor reflex induced by C-fiber activity: comparison between adult and aged rats
K Kanda1, H Sato, T Kemuriyama
1Department of Central Nervous System, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, 35-2, Sakaecho, Itabashi-Ku, 173-0015, Tokyo, Japan. kandak@tmig.or.jp
Abstract:
We investigated the wind-up phenomenon of the flexor reflex in adult and aged rats. The sural nerve was stimulated at C-fiber strength and reflex activity was recorded from the semitendinosus muscle. The wind-up rate, the increment rate of the C-fiber response (i.e. activity from 100 to 600 ms after stimulation) by successive stimuli (five train pulses), was decreased exponentially with increasing stimulus intervals from 3 to 20 s. The time constant of the decay for the aged rats was 9.2+/-3.2 s (mean+/-SD), which was significantly longer than for the adult rats (6.4+/-2.9 s). The findings indicate that the effects of C-fiber activation on the spinal nociceptive pathways attenuate more slowly in aged rats as compared with adult rats.

