Reversal of the influence of group Ib afferents from plantaris on activity in medial gastrocnemius muscle during locomotor activity

K. G. Pearson and D. F. Collins Department of Physiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. 1. Rhythmic locomotor activity was evoked in clonidine-treated acute and chronic spinal cats, and the effect of stimulating group I afferents from the plantaris muscle on the timing and magnitude of bursts in medial gastrocnemius (MG) motoneurons was examined. 2. The locomotor rhythm was entrained when group I afferents in the plantaris nerve were electrically stimulated with trains of stimuli presented at rates above and below the intrinsic frequency of the rhythmic activity. During entrainment at rates higher than the intrinsic frequency, a burst of activity in ipsilateral MG motoneurons was initiated approximately 40 ms after the onset of each stimulus train. At lower rates of entrainment the onset of MG bursts preceded the onset of the stimulus trains, and each stimulus train had an excitatory effect on the MG burst with a latency in the range of 30-50 ms. A similar excitatory effect was observed when the stimulus trains were triggered at a preset delay after the endogenous generation of the MG bursts. 3. The excitatory action of plantaris group I afferents on the MG motoneurons was only seen during periods of locomotor activity. In the absence of rhythmic activity, the same stimulus trains reduced any ongoing tonic activity in MG motoneurons. 4. Vibration of the plantaris muscle to preferentially activate group Ia afferents neither entrained the locomotor rhythm nor increased the magnitude of the MG bursts. 5. We conclude that during locomotor activity, input from group Ib afferents of the plantaris muscle has an excitatory action on the system of interneurons generating the extensor bursts, i.e., on the extensor half-center of the central rhythm generator.