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Synaptic events during specific and nonspecific inhibition of visual cortical neurons

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Abstract

Intracellular and quasi-intracellular recordings were made of changes in membrane potential in visual cortical neurons of the waking rabbit during specific (to flashes) and nonspecific (to nonvisual stimuli) inhibition. As a rule, specific inhibition was accompanied by some degree of hyperpolarization of the cell membrane while nonspecific was unaccompanied by any appreciable degree of membrane hyperpolarization. It is postulated that this difference is caused by differences in the arrangement of the inhibitory synapses on the body and dendrites of the neurons. Long-latency prolonged IPSPs arising in response to photic stimulation can be suppressed by the action of various nonvisual stimuli and by stimulation of the mesencephalic reticular formation. A decrease in amplitude of the IPSPs may lead to filling of the inhibitory pauses with spikes. These phenomena are evidently based either on inhibition of inhibitory neurons or on a disturbance of the synchronization of their discharges, leading to weakening of the integral IPSPs.

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Authors
  1. V. G. Skrebitskii
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  2. I. N. Sharonova
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Additional information

Brain Institute, Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR, Moscow. Translated from Neirofiziologiya, Vol. 4, No. 4, pp. 349–357, July–August, 1972.

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Skrebitskii, V.G., Sharonova, I.N. Synaptic events during specific and nonspecific inhibition of visual cortical neurons. Neurophysiology 4, 263–269 (1972). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01063741

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01063741

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