[Statistical characteristics of the background and evoked activity of cat superior colliculus neurons].
Background and evoked neuronal activity in the superior colliculus was studied in cats immobilized by galamine and in the encephale isole cats. Statistical parameters of the unit activity were calculated in the light and darkness and during stimulation with a moving light spot. Differentiation of background active neurons into the following four groups was suggested: the first group with a mean interval value about 300 ms, variation coefficient 1.9 and two peaks in the autocorrelation histogram, the second group with similar statistical parameters, however, differing in a presence of a correlation with saccade eye movements; the third group with a mean interval about 100 ms, variation coefficient 1.0 and an exponential distribution of intervals; the fourth group with the symmetrical type of interval histogram, a mean interval about 50 ms, variation coefficient 0.4--0.5. Only in the neurons of the second group significant difference was found in statistical parameters under light and dark conditions. Comparison of the statistical parameters of background activity and that, evoked by a moving light spot, testifies to be possibility of coding information on stimulus movement in the 3d and 4th groups of units.
D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D003623:Dark Adaptation; D005071:Evoked Potentials; D009039:Motion Perception / Q000502:physiology; D013477:Superior Colliculi / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
Statisticheskie kharakteristiki fonovoĭ i vyzvannoĭ aktivnosti neĭronov perednego dvukholmiia koshek