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1996 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

Physiology and morphology of the masticatory alpha and gamma motoneurons -intracellular recording and HRP injection technique-

Research Project

Project/Area Number 07838017
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

Allocation TypeSingle-year Grants
Section時限
Research Field 咀嚼
Research InstitutionOsaka University

Principal Investigator

YOSHIDA Atsushi  Osaka University, Dentistry, Oral Anatomy, Associate Professor, 歯学部, 助教授 (90201855)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) NAGASE Yoshitaka  Osaka University, Dentistry, Oral Anatomy, Research Associate, 歯学部, 助手 (50252698)
Project Period (FY) 1995 – 1996
Keywordsmastication / masseter / trigeminal / alpha motoneuron / gamma motoneuron / HRP / intracellular recoding / cat
Research Abstract

In order to identify alpha and gamma types in the masticatory motoneurons, intracellular recording and HRP injection technique was applied to cat masseter motoneurons in vivo. The distribution of latency of antidromically evoked spikes in the masseter motoneurons was not divided into two distinct groups, suggesting that the latency can not be used as an criterion to identify the motoneurons. A small number of masseter motoneurons with monosynaptic EPSP evoked after stimulations of the lingual nerve or without monosynaptic EPSP after stimulations of the masseter nerve showed shorter latency of the antidromically evoked spikes. All of these electrophysiological data indicated that the alpha and gamma masseter motoneurons differ from alpha and gamma spinal motoneurons, respectively, which can be distinguished by several electrophysiological criteria. On the other hand, morpholoy of the HRP-labeled masseter motoneurons were reexamined and showed that a few masseter motoneurons have very simply branched dendrites. Thus these neurons were further analyzed three dimensionally and showed smaller dendritic volume, shorter total length of dendrites and longer first-order dendrites than those of the other masseter motoneurons, suggesting that gamma masseter motoneurons exist and should be distingushed on the basis of both their morphology and physiology. Therefore we tried to study morphological characteristics of synapses between a masseter motoneuron and a functionally identified spindle afferent by means of electron microscope in addition to light microscope. These frontier studies clarified that several different types of synapses exist between the two neurons, suggesting that these differences may be involved in the functional distinction between alpha and gamma types.

  • Research Products

    (7 results)

All Other

All Publications (7 results)

  • [Publications] Yabuta, N. H.: "Light microscopic observations of the contacts made between two spindle afferent types and α-motoneurons inthe cat trigeminal motor nucleus" The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 374. 436-450 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] 吉田篤: "目で見る脳科学、三叉神経[I]-運動ニューロン-" ブレインサイエンス. 7. 357-361 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] Bae, Y. C.: "Electron microscopic observation of synaptic connections of jaw muscle spindle and periodontal afferent terminals in the trigeminal motor and supratrigeminal nuclei in the cat" The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 374. 421-435 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] 吉田篤: "目で見る脳科学、三叉神経[II]-運動核へ投射する中脳路核ニューロン-" ブレインサイエンス. 8(印刷中). (1997)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] 重永凱男: "咀嚼運動と歯の感覚 解剖学者が語る人体の世界" 日本解剖学会編 風人社, 130-132 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(和文)」より
  • [Publications] Bae, Y.C., S.Nakagawa, K.Yasuda, N.H.Yabuta, A.Yoshida, P.K.Pil, M.Moritani, K.Chen, Y.Nagase, M.Takemura, and Y.Shigenaga.: "Electron microscopic observation of synaptic connections of jaw-muscle spindle and periodontal afferent terminals in the trigeminal motor and supratrigeminal nuclei in the cat" The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 374. 421-435 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より
  • [Publications] Yabuta, N.H., K.Yasuda, Y.Nagase, A.Yoshida, Y.Fukunishi and Y.Shigenaga.: "Light microscopic observations of the contacts made between two spindle afferent types and alpha-motoneurons in the cat trigeminal motor nucleus" The Journal of Comparative Neurology. 374. 436-450 (1996)

    • Description
      「研究成果報告書概要(欧文)」より

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Published: 1999-03-09  

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