| Abstract: | The interaction of neurons of the visual and sensory motor areas of the neocortex of the rabbit before and after stimulation
of some medial nuclei of the hypothalamus was investigated by plotting cross- and autocorrelation histograms. Stimulation
through bipolar electrodes using bursts of biphasic pulses at a frequency of 100 Hz, current strength 50–200 μA, led to the
appearance in freely behaving rabbits of the reaction of avoidance of the place of stimulation. Following stimulation, as
compared with resting wakefulness, the number of pairs of neurons functioning in correlation increased to 45%; at the same
time, discharges of neurons of the sensory motor area ran ahead of discharges of visual neurons in the pairs up to 120 msec;
the periodicity of the coupled discharges was mainly in the theta frequency range. A conclusion regarding the reflection of
defense motivation in certain indices of the interaction of the cortical cells in the presence of a tonic conditioned reflex
is reached on the basis of a comparison of the interaction of neurons following stimulation of the medial hypothalamus and
the midbrain reticular formation, in the intersignal periods during the development of a defense conditioned reflex as well.
This study was supported by the Russian Basic Research Fund (project No. 94-04-11399 a).
Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. Translated from Zhurnal Vysshei
Nervnoi Deyatel'nosti imeni I. P. Pavlova, Vol. 45, No. 2, pp. 297–304, March–April, 1995. |
