The bulbocavernosus reflex. A single motor neuron study.

Abstract

Reflex latency variability was established for single motor neuron discharges in the bulbocavernosus reflex, as elicited by electrical stimuli to the dorsal penile nerve and recorded by a single fibre EMG electrode in the bulbocavernosus muscle. Whereas many reflex responses had a rather large latency variability of above 1000 microseconds (expressed as SD of mean latency) there was a group of motor neurons with a variability of around 500 microseconds. Single motor neuron reflex responses with shorter latencies tended to show less variability. No habituation of single motor neuron reflex discharges was observed on prolonged regular repetitive stimulation. Both absence of habituation and the relatively low latency variability of bulbocavernosus reflex responses for single motor neurons suggest similarities between this reflex and the first component of the blink reflex; we postulate that the shortest bulbocavernosus reflex pathway is oligosynaptic.