| Abstract: | Characteristics of extra- and intracellular responses of 57 neurons in the vibrissal projection zone of the first somatosensory area of the cat cortex were investigated. The intensity of both excitatory and inhibitory unit responses was found to diminish during successive stimulation of different parts of the receptive fields in the direction from center toward periphery. Usually, when central parts of receptive fields were stimulated, inhibition in the unit responses was postexcitatory, whereas when peripheral parts were stimulated inhibition could precede excitation. The possibility of an increase in the role of interaction between excitatory and inhibitory processes arising in neurons in response to vibrissal stimulation with an increase in the distance from center to periphery of receptive fields of single cortical cells is discussed. Neurons found during one insertion of the microelectrode were seen to have common center for their receptive fields, but the diameters of the receptive fields of individual neurons could differ significantly. Moreover, during such vertical insertions responses of neurons with primary inhibition to the stimuli presented were recorded.A. A. Bogomolets Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR, Kiev. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 12, No. 2, pp. 124–130, March–April, 1980. |
