Summary
A branch of the dorsal interosseous nerve is described, which innervates the dorsal aspect of the wrist joint capsule of the cat. Recordings of the whole wrist joint nerve showed no tonic activity until the wrist was flexed to within 45 ° of full flexion (about one third of the normal range). There was no tonic activity at full extension or at intermediate positions. 110 single afferents from the wrist joint capsule were isolated from dorsal root filaments. Their responses to movement of the wrist and other mechanical stimuli were examined, and their conduction velocities measured. 31 were slowly adapting, 41 were phasic, 9 were Pacinian corpuscle-like, 7 were weakly activated, and 22 were not activated by the mechanical stimuli which were used. Slowly adapting receptors responded only when the joint was in a flexed position as would be expected from the whole nerve data. Conduction velocities for the 4 classes of responding mechanoreceptors were not significantly different, and fell in the group II range. Fibre diameter histograms of myelinated axons in the wrist joint nerve showed peaks in the group II and group III range. Intravenous injection of succinylcholine showed no increase in whole nerve activity attributable to muscle spindles, and had a negligible effect on identified receptors in the wrist joint capsule.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Andersen, H.T., Körner, L., Landgren, S., Silfvenius, H.: Fibre components and cortical projections of the elbow joint nerve in the cat. Acta Physiol Scand 69, 373–382 (1967)
Andrew, B.L., Dodt, E.: The deployment of sensory nerve endings at the knee joint of the cat. Acta Physiol Scand 28, 287–296 (1954)
Boyd, I.A.: The histological structure of the receptors in the knee joint of the cat correlated with their physiological response. J Physiol (Lond) 124, 476–488 (1954)
Boyd, I.A., Davey, M.R.: Composition of Peripheral Nerves. Edinburgh, London: Livingstone 1968
Burgess, P.R., Clark, F.J.: Characteristics of knee joint receptors in the cat. J Physiol (Lond) 203, 317–335 (1969)
Carli, G., Farabollini, F., Fontani, G.: Static characteristics of slowly adapting hip joint receptors in the cat. Exp Brain Res (Suppl.) 23, 36 (1975)
Clark, F.J.: Information signalled by sensory fibers in medial articular nerve. J Neurophysiol 38, 1464–1472 (1975)
Clark, F.J., Burgess, P.R.: Slowly adapting receptors in cat knee joint: can they signal joint angle? J Neurophysiol 38, 1448–1463 (1975)
Ferrell, W.R.: The discharge of mechanoreceptors in the cat knee joint at intermediate angles. J Physiol (Lond) 268, 23 (1977)
Freeman, M.A.R., Wyke, B.: The innervation of the knee joint. An anatomical and histological study in the cat. J Anat 101, 505–532 (1967)
Gandevia, S.C., McCloskey, D.I.: Joint sense, muscle sense and their combination as position sense, measured at the distal interphalangeal joint of the middle finger. J Physiol (Lond) 260, 387–407 (1976)
Godwin-Austen, R.B.: The mechanoreceptors of the costo-vertebral joints. J Physiol (Lond) 202, 737–753 (1969)
Goldscheider, A.: Physiologie des Muskelsinnes. Leipzig: Barth 1898. Cited by Howard, I.P., Templeton, W.B.: Human Spatial Orientation. London: Wiley 1966
Goodwin, G.M., McCloskey, D.I., Matthews, P.B.C.: The contribution of muscle afferents to kinaesthesia shown by vibration induced illusions of movement and by the effects of paralysing joint afferents. Brain 95, 705–748 (1972)
Gray, D.J., Gardner, E.: The innervation of the joints of the wrist and hand. Anat Rec 151, 261–266 (1965)
Grigg, P.: Mechanical factors influencing response of joint afferent neurons from cat knee. J Neurophysiol 38, 1473–1484 (1975)
Hursh, J.B.: Conduction velocity and diameter of nerve fibers. Am J Physiol 127, 131–139 (1939)
Loeb, G.E., Bak, M.J., Duysens, J.: Long-term unit recording from somatosensory neurons in the spinal ganglia of the freely walking cat. Science 197, 1192–1194 (1977)
McCall, W.D., Farias, M.C., Williams, W.J., BeMent, S.L.: Static and dynamic responses of slowly adapting joint receptors. Brain Res 70, 221–243 (1974)
McCloskey, D.I.: Kinesthetic sensibility. Physiol Rev (in press) (1978)
McIntyre, A.K., Proske, U., Tracey, D.J.: Afferent fibres from muscle receptors in the posterior nerve of the cat's knee joint. Exp Brain Res (in press) (1979)
Matthews, P.B.C.: Muscle afferents and kinaesthesia. Br Med Bull 33, 137–142 (1977)
Millar, J.: Flexion-extension sensitivity of elbow joint afferents in cat. Exp Brain Res 24, 209–214 (1975)
Mountcastle, V.B.: Physiology of sensory receptors: introduction to sensory processes. In: Medical Physiology (ed. V.B. Mountcastle), 12th edn, Vol. 2, p. 1366. St. Louis: Mosby 1968
Nyström, B.: Postnatal development of motor terminals in “slow-red” and “fast-white” cat muscles. Acta Neurol Scand 44, 363–383 (1968)
Poláček, P.: Receptors of the joints. Their structure, variability and classification. Acta Facul Med Univ Brunensis 23, (1966)
Skoglund, S.: Anatomical and physiological studies of knee joint innervation in the cat. Acta Physiol Scand 36, Suppl. 124, 1–101 (1956)
Tracey, D.J.: Characteristics of primary afferents from the wrist joint of the cat. Proc Aust Physiol Pharmacol Soc 8, 177 (1977)
Tracey, D.J.: Joint receptors in the wrist of the cat. In: Studies in Neurophysiology: presented to A.K. McIntyre. (Ed. R. Porter). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (in press) 1978
Westerman, R.A., Wilson, J.A.F.: The fine structure of the olfactory tract in the teleost Carassius carassius L. Z Zellforsch 91, 186–199 (1968)