Spinocerebellar Tract - Origins of Proprioceptive Information

Origins of Proprioceptive Information

Proprioceptive information is obtained by Golgi tendon organs and muscle spindles.

  • Golgi tendon organs consist of a fibrous capsule enclosing tendon fascicles and bare nerve endings that respond to tension in the tendon by causing action potentials in Ib afferent neurons (relatively large, myelinated, quickly conducting).
  • Muscle spindles fibers are complicated systems of length monitoring within muscles which result in information being carried via Ia neurons (larger and faster than Ib) (from both nuclear bag fibers and nuclear chain fibers) and II neurons (solely from nuclear chain fibers).

All of these neurons are "first order" or "primary", are sensory (and thus have their cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglion) and pass through Rexed laminae layers I-VI of the dorsal horn, to form synapses with "second order" or "secondary" neurons in the layer just beneath the dorsal horn (layer VII)

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