also: せきずいねこ
spinal cat; spinalized cat
A cat whose spinal cord has been surgically transected, used in neuroscience research to study locomotion and reflexes.
See also: 脊髄切断 (せきずいせつだん)
Spinal cats exhibit walking-like movements on a treadmill even after spinal cord transection.
Standard spelling using katakana for ネコ, common in scientific contexts.
Alternate spelling with kanji for 猫; less common in technical literature.
Compound of 脊髄 (spinal cord) and ネコ/猫 (cat), a direct calque of the English term 'spinal cat'.