Baseline and evoked spike activity in neurons in embryonic transplants of the somatosensory cortex in rats

The aim of the present work was to study the nature of the baseline and evoked spike activity of neurons in embryonic transplants four months after homotopic allotransplantation into the whisker representation zone of the somatosensory cortex of the recipient rat brain (the barrel field). These studies showed that the instantaneous mean spike frequency of neuron activity was decreased in neural transplants as compared with the somatosensory cortex of control rats, while the latent period of evoked cell activity was longer. In addition, the pattern of evoked activity in transplant neurons was characterized by an increased frequency of spike generation or alternation of periods of activation and decreased spike frequency with subsequent recovery to the initial level, this being similar to the pattern seen in neurons in the whisker representation zone of the somatosensory cortex in control rats. __________ Translated from Rossiiskii Fiziologicheskii Zhurnal imeni I. M. Sechenova, Vol. 91, No. 5, pp. 473–480, May, 2005.