Synaptic transmission between single slowly adapting type I fibres and their cuneate target neurones in cat

1. The synaptic linkage between single, identified slowly adapting type I (SAI) fibres and their central target neurones of the cuneate nucleus was examined in pentobarbitone-anaesthetized cats. Simultaneous extracellular recordings were made from individual cuneate neurones and from fine, intact fascicles of the lateral branch of the superficial radial nerve in which it was possible to identify and monitor the activity of each group II fibre. Individual SAI fibres were activated by static displacement and by vibration delivered with a fine probe (0.25-2 mm diameter) to their associated touch domes in the hairy skin of the forelimb. 2. Transmission properties across the synapse were analysed for nine SAI-cuneate pairs in which the single SAI fibre of each pair provided a suprathreshold input to the cuneate neurone. Neither spatial nor temporal summation was required for effective impulse transmission, and often more than 80% of SAI impulses led to a response in the cuneate neurone. Responses of the cuneate neurones to single SAI impulses occurred at a short, fixed latency (S.D. often < 0.1 ms), and frequently consisted of a burst of two or three impulses, at low SAI input rates in particular. 3. The tight phase-locking in the responses to vibration of single SAI fibres was preserved in the cuneate responses for frequencies up to approximately 400 Hz. However, as the impulse rates of the cuneate neurones were less than 150 impulses s-1, their impulse patterns could not directly signal the vibration periodicity at frequencies > 100-150 Hz despite 1:1 responses in their single SAI input fibres up to approximately 500 Hz. 4. The reliable transmission of touch dome-associated SAI input across the cuneate nucleus indicates that transmission failure at this first relay is unlikely to be responsible for the reported failure of touch dome-SAI inputs to contribute to tactile perception. 5. The transmission characteristics for the SAI fibres were very similar to those demonstrated previously for fibres associated with Pacinian corpuscles, which argues against any marked differential specialization in transmission characteristics for dorsal column nuclei neurones that receive input from different tactile fibre classes.