title: Delayed signal transmission in area 17, area 18 and the posteromedial lateral suprasylvian area of aged cats.
abstract: To investigate the effect of senescence on signal transmission, we have compared the visual response latency and spontaneous activity of cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), area 17, area 18 and posteromedial lateral suprasylvian area (PMLS) of young and old cats. We found that LGN cells in old cats exhibit largely normal visual response latency. In contrast, all the other three areas exhibited significant aging-related delays in the visual response latency. On average, PMLS showed most pronounced delays among these three areas. Area 18 slowed more than area 17, but this was not significant. The degradation of signal timing in the visual cortex might provide insight into neuronal response mechanism underlying perception slowing during aging.
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yuan
authors.affiliation: Department of Bio-Medical Engineering, School of Life Science, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.affiliation: CAS Key Laboratory of Brain Function and Diseases, and School of Life Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China. Electronic address: zhouy@ustc.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D002415:Cats; D005829:Geniculate Bodies / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: aging; old cats; visual hierarchy; visual information processing; visual pathway; visual response latency