| Abstract: | During acute experiments on awake cats the response of 98 neurons belonging to the head and tail of the caudate nucleus to direct electrical stimulation of the optic tract and presentation of photic stimuli was investigated using extracellular recording techniques. Of the test neurons 34.6% responded to stimulation of the optic tract and 36.2% to optic stimulation. Long latency (over 40 msec for the optic tract and over 80 msec for visual stimulation) excitatory responses prevailed in both cases. A small number of cells responded to optic tract stimulation with short latencies of 5–14 msec. Both types of stimulation were presented during investigations of 58 units of which eight were found to respond to both stimuli. The latter varied in their reaction to different stimuli and their response pattern. Findings are discussed in relation to the possible pathways by which visual information reaches the cortical structure under study.A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 476–485, July–August, 1986. |
