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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1970 May;66(1):40–47. doi: 10.1073/pnas.66.1.40

Unit Activity in the Isolated Spinal Cord of Chick Embryo, in Situ

S C Sharma 1,2, R R Provine 1,2,*, V Hamburger 1,2, T T Sandel 1,2
PMCID: PMC286084  PMID: 5273900

Abstract

Unit electrical activity was recorded from single neurons in the isolated lumbo-sacral spinal cord of 14- to 19-day chick embryos, in situ. Spinal cord transection was combined with transection of all lumbo-sacral dorsal roots. The spontaneous discharge of cells is confined, for the most part, to the lower two thirds of the cord. A quasilinear reduction in the number of spontaneously active units was found during the developmental period studied. Comparable results were obtained in decentralized cord with sensory inputs blocked by xylocaine.

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Selected References

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