Discharge properties of neurons recorded in the parvalbumin-positive (PV1) nucleus of the rat lateral hypothalamus.
This study reports for the first time the extracellular activity recorded, in anesthetized rats, from cells located in an identified cluster of parvalbumin (PV)-positive neurons of the lateral hypothalamus forming the PV1-nucleus. Random-like firing characterized the majority (21/30) of the cells, termed regular cells, with a median firing rate of 1.7 spikes/s, Fano factor equal to 1, and evenly distributed along the rostro-caudal axis. Four cells exhibiting an oscillatory activity in the range 1.6-2.1Hz were observed only in the posterior part of the PV1-nucleus. The asynchronous activity of PV1 neurons is likely to produce a "network-driven" effect on their main target within the periaqueductal gray matter. The hypothesis is raised that background random-like firing of PV1-nucleus is associated with functional network activity likely to contribute dynamic information related to condition transitions of awareness and non-conscious perception.
Department of Medicine/Unit of Anatomy, University of Fribourg, Switzerland; Neuroheuristic Research Group, HEC Lausanne, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Electronic address: Alessandra.Lintas@neuroheuristic.org.
Alessandra
A
Lintas
D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D007026:Hypothalamic Area, Lateral / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000378:metabolism*; D017208:Rats, Wistar
D010320:Parvalbumins
Autocorrelograms; Delta rhythm; Fano factor; Feedforward network; Spontaneous firing pattern