Brain-stem facilitation of electrically evoked visual cortical response in the cat. Source, pathway and role of nicotinic receptors.
The experiments reported here show that facilitation of late components of the electrically evoked visual cortical response by electrical stimulation of the midbrain reticular formation in the cat depends on nicotinic cholinergic receptors and not on muscarinic receptors that mediate the arousal reaction. Facilitation could be elicited by stimulation of areas ranging from pons to diencephalon (maximally from the central and paralemniscal tegmental fields of the midbrain) and employed a pathway traversing the intralaminar thalamic nuclei. In contrast to the effects of this reticulocortical pathway, little facilitation was obtained from the locus ceruleus, the dorsal raphe nucleus or the medial forebrain bundle through which these two monoaminergic pathways project to the cerebral cortex.
D000818:Animals; D001285:Atropine / Q000494:pharmacology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D001933:Brain Stem / Q000502:physiology*; D002415:Cats; D004027:Diencephalon / Q000502:physiology; D005074:Evoked Potentials, Visual; D008464:Mecamylamine / Q000494:pharmacology; D008474:Medial Forebrain Bundle / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways; D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors; D013787:Thalamic Nuclei / Q000502:physiology; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*
D018377:Neurotransmitter Agents; D008464:Mecamylamine; D001285:Atropine