After swim practice a 22-year-old man decides to work on his diving technique. During one of his dives his head strikes the bottom of the pool, hyperextending his neck. He is unable to move, and his teammates find him floating motionless in the pool. A magnetic resonance scan indicates a lesion at the cervical level of the spinal cord. The transected axons distal to the cell body will most likely undergo which of the following?