Abstract:Experiments were performed on Wistar rats anesthetizd with sodium pentobarbital and paralyzed with tubocurare.Intracellular recording was made from the S1 dorsal root ganglion(DRG)to observe the responses of DRG neurons to natural stimulation of pudendal receptive field and balloon expansion of rectum.A total of 75 S1 DRG neurons in 25 rats was found to be activated by natural stimulation of cutaneous field.Twenty two of them were activated also by natural stimulation of visceral field.The mean conduction velocity of somatic and visceral input was 23 and 21 M/S,respectively.Most of them were low threshold mechanoreceptive(LTM)neurons.In addition,fourteen neurons spontaneously discharged also responded to visceral stimulation.The results indicated that some type A DRG neurons innervate both somatic and visceral area via their dichotomized peripheral processes.