Glycinergic inhibition contributes to the generation of rostral scratch motor patterns in the turtle spinal cord

Cutaneous stimulation within the rostral scratch receptive field in a low spinal-immobilized turtle elicits a fictive rostral scratch reflex characterized by robust rhythmic motor output from ipsilateral hindlimb muscle nerves and weaker, alternating motor discharge in contralateral nerves. Simultaneous bilateral stimulation elicits bilateral rostral scratch motor patterns in which activity on the right and left sides alternates. We investigated the role of glycinergic inhibition in the generation and coordination of fictive rostral scratch motor patterns. Glycine (2 or 5 mM) and strychnine (5-50 microM), a glycine antagonist, were superfused over the anterior spinal hindlimb enlargement while fictive rostral scratch motor output was recorded bilaterally from hindlimb muscle nerves in the form of electroneurograms (ENGs). Although glycine reduced rostral scratch burst frequencies, strychnine tended to increase burst frequency. Strychnine also changed the shape of hip flexor ENG bursts, resulting in more abrupt burst onsets, indicating an earlier recruitment of motor neurons with large ENG spikes. During bilateral stimulation, strychnine increased the variability of interlimb phase values (left vs right hip flexor bursts) but did not abolish right-left alternation. These results indicate that glycinergic neurons in or near the anterior hindlimb enlargement contribute to the overall timing of the rostral scratch rhythm and to the recruitment timing of individual hip flexor motor neurons within each scratch burst. Our data also indicate that glycinergic mechanisms contribute to, but are not critically important for, maintaining an alternating interlimb coordination during bilateral scratch motor patterns.