AbstractThe effects of cismethrin, 5‐benzyl‐3‐furylmethyl (1 R)‐cis‐chrysanthemate, in the spinal rabbit have been investigated at the level of the sensory receptors, in an afferent nerve, and in the spinal cord. Cismethrin causes a lowering of the threshold of some sensory receptors and the appearance of spontaneous activity, which may be in bursts, in some afferent fibres that were previously silent. When recordings were made from the afferent nerve, in addition to phenomena arising from the effects on sensory receptors, there was repetitive firing in the nerve when action potentials were evoked by electrical stimulation. The effects on the spinal cord were such as to increase the excitability of reflex arcs. There was also a change in the normal pattern of facilitation and inhibition as measured by the amplitude of the second of two suitably spaced monosynaptic responses and it is suggested that this is an indirect effect of cismethrin intoxication. The cumulative effect of the changes brought about in nervous activity in the system described here could account at least in part for the convulsions observed in intoxicate
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