title: Synaptic potentials in cat's lateral geniculate neurons during natural sleep with special reference to paradoxical sleep.
abstract: Juxtacellular DC recordings from lateral geniculate body (LGB) relay cells were performed in completely undrugged cats during natural sleep. Paradoxical sleep (P) was characterized by a decrease in synaptic (S) potentials and an increase in spike discharge as compared to slow wave sleep. During the P grouped discharges simultaneous with eye movements and cortical waves, a further decrease in S potentials accompanied by an increased cell excitability as indicated by the higher probability to elicit an antidromic spike occurred. The results suggest that the decrease of S potentials in P is not the result of presynaptic inhibition but that most of them reach firing level during the P grouped discharges.
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D008564:Membrane Potentials; D012890:Sleep / Q000502:physiology*; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology; D009435:Synaptic Transmission