Effect of diazepam on the impulse activity of neurons in the sensomotor and visual areas of the rat cerebral cortex

Acute experiments on nonanesthetized curare-treated rats with the recording of the neuronal activity of the cortex were conducted; a determination was made of the threshold doses in which diazepam influenced the spontaneous and induced activity of the neurons of the sensory-motor and optic cortex. Diazepam proved to depress the spontaneous and induced activity of the neurons of the sensory-motor and optic cortex. Diazepam proved to depress the spontaneous and induced activity of the neurons of the sensory-motor cortex in considerably lesser doses than the neuronal activity of the optic cortex. It is supposed that the neurons of the anterior portions of the cortex were more sensitive to diazepam than the neurons of the limbic structures and the reticular formation.