Neurones in cat gracile nucleus with both local and widefield inputs.

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Abstract
Forty-three neurons were isolated in the cat gracile nucleus that could be driven by electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral forefoot or the contralateral hind foot and had a normal low threshold localized receptive field on the ipsilateral hind limb. Twenty-five (58%) of the cells had axons projecting to the contralateral ventrobasal thalamus. Most of the cells could only be driven from the widefield receptive field on the forefoot or contralateral hindfoot by percutaneous electrical stimulation. These results are discussed in the context of a model of the gracile nucleus in which these occasional widefield connections are considered to be errors in connectivity which are not normally effective due to the patterns of excitation and inhibition in the normally functioning nucleus. In this model, electrical stimulation is an abnormal type of stimulation that can drive cells through these erroneous connections.