Effects of bicuculline on direction-sensitive relay cells in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGNd) of cats

The direction sensitivity of relay cells in the cat's dorsal lateral geniculate (LGNd) was measured using sinusoidal grating stimuli before and during local bicuculline administration. One hundred and twenty-eight LGNd relay cells were recorded in laminae A and A1, of which 44 relay cells (34%) were found to be sensitive to direction of stimulus movement. The direction-sensitive LGNd relay cells could be differentiated into two subgroups based on different measures of their response amplitude. Type I cells exhibited their direction sensitivity when the fundamental Fourier component (FFC) of the poststimulus time histograms (PSTHs) was used as response measure, but did not show significant direction sensitivity when mean firing rate was used. Type II cells exhibited their direction sensitivity, no matter whether the FFC or mean firing rate was used as the measure. Of 35 cells analyzed, 27 cells remained direction sensitive during bicuculline administration. At the population level, the direction bias of type I cells did not change systematically, while the direction bias of type II cells decreased significantly during bicuculline administration. These results suggest that the direction bias of these two types of relay cells are mediated by different neural mechanisms. The direction bias of type I cells may involve multiple inputs from spatio-temporally separate subunits within retinal ganglion cells receptive fields. The direction bias of type II cells may involve GABAergic neuronal circuits within the LGNd.