NOTE ON REFLEX THRESHOLDS IN THE CAT DURING SPINAL SHOCK

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Its rapid elimination makes divinyl ether a suitable anesthetic for transection for study of the initial phase of spinal shock; in the full grown cat the transient depression following involves the reflex thresholds in the ascending order of severity: (1) ipsilateral extension elicited from the external aspect of the thigh, little or not at all; (2) ipsilateral flexion, relatively little; (3) crossed flexion, moderately; (4) crossed extension, severely. Of these reflexes, the first 3 are present immediately after transection. Crossed extension may appear at any interval from 20 min. to more than 24 hrs. The lateness of its appearance is probably due partly to spinal shock, partly to inhibition from the crossed flexion reflex. Similarly, the ipsilateral flexion reflex, though relatively little affected by shock, does not extend its receptive field effectively over that of the still less involved antagonistic reflex from the external aspect of the thigh for several days after transection.

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit: