| Abstract: | Changes in unit activity in the lateral geniculate body during formation of a generator of pathologically enhanced excitation as a result of local injection of tetanus toxin into this nucleus were investigated in unanesthetized cats. To assess changes taking place a classification of geniculate neurons in normal animals obtained by analysis of interspike interval histograms of spontaneous activity and poststimulus histograms of unit activity evoked by photic stimulation was used. As a result of the action of the toxin substantial changes were observed in the quantitative distribution of the neurons by groups. A new group of neurons with a considerably increased duration of the first spike volley also was identified. The appearance of these neurons is connected with disappearance of the inhibitory pause in the overwhelming majority of relay neurons of the nucleus.Institute of General Pathology and Pathological Physiology, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 38–43, January–February, 1978. |
