Somatotopic arrangment of the proprioceptive afferents from the jaw muscles in the mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus of the duck

Abstract

The fiber content and diameter spectra of the cranial nerves III, IV and VI were analysed in cat. A semi-automatic technique of measuring fiber diameters is presented and compared to the manual method. The number of fibres was counted in the proximal part of the three main nerves and in each of their distal branches before they enter the EOM. Compared to the muscle weight, the branch to the RB had fewer fibers than all the other muscle branches. The diameter spectra of the proximal part of the three main nerves were compared with the diameter spectra of each of their distal branches. Minor differences were found among them. Only the RB had a striking difference in the spectrum which was skewed toward the large diameters.