Journal of neurophysiology
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1. During alertness, lemniscal thalamocortical neurons in the ventral medial geniculate body (MGBv) encode sound signals by firing action potentials in a tonic mode. When they are in a burst firing mode, characteristic of thalamic neurons during some sleep states, the same stimuli may have an alerting function, leading to conscious perception of sound. ⋯ Also, K+ conductances may contribute to spike repolarization, because 4-AP (100 microM) or tetraethylammonium (2 mM) application led to prolonged action potentials and the generation of plateau potentials. A fast afterhyperpolarization, likely mediated by a Ca(2+)-dependent K+ conductance, limited the tonic firing. Such conductances, therefore, may regulate the re
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Comparative Study Clinical Trial
Response compatibility and the relationship between event-related potentials and the timing of a motor response.
1. Earlier studies have shown that changes in the difficulty of sensory discrimination in a choice reaction time task result in a prolongation of the peak latency for several components of the long-latency event-related potential (ERP). With the use of the technique of response-locked averaging, we have previously shown that manipulation of the difficulty of sensory discrimination also affects response execution as assessed by the interval between the ERP and onset of the response. ⋯ However, despite the similarly tight coupling of the response to the ERP in both the compatible and noncompatible conditions, the response occurred later relative to the ERPs in the noncompatible condition. This suggests that different components of the ERP are responsible for triggering the response in different circumstances. Our observations on the error trials suggests that the decision to respond (on these trials) is based on the occurrence of cerebral events that are evoked by either rare or frequent stimuli, whereas this decision (on correct response trials) is based on cerebral events elicited only by the rare stimuli.
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1. The present study addresses the involvement of voltage-dependent calcium channels of the N and L type in the spinal processing of innocuous and noxious input from the knee joint, both under normal conditions and under inflammatory conditions in which spinal cord neurons become hyperexcitable. In 30 anesthetized rats, extracellular recordings were performed from single dorsal horn neurons in segments 1-4 of the lumbar spinal cord. ⋯ The data suggest, therefore, that voltage-dependent calcium calcium channels of both the N and the L type are important for the sensory functions of the spinal cord. They are involved in the spinal processing of nonnociceptive as well as nociceptive mechanosensory input from the joint, both under normal and inflammatory conditions. The present results show in particular that N- and L-type channels are likely to be involved in the generation of pain evoked by noxious mechanical stimulation in normal tissue as well as in the mechanical hyperalgesia that is usually pres
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Clinical Trial
Saccades to remembered targets: the effects of smooth pursuit and illusory stimulus motion.
1. Measurements were made in four normal human subjects of the accuracy of saccades to remembered locations of targets that were flashed on a 20 x 30 deg random dot display that was either stationary or moving horizontally and sinusoidally at +/-9 deg at 0.3 Hz. During the interval between the target flash and the memory-guided saccade, the "memory period" (1.4 s), subjects either fixated a stationary spot or pursued a spot moving vertically sinusoidally at +/-9 deg at 0.3 Hz. 2. ⋯ We tested the possibilities that the brain made an accurate memory of target location and a reliable representation of the eye movement during the memory period, or that one or both of these was corrupted by the illusory visual stimulus. Our data were best accounted for by a model in which both the working memory of target location and the internal representation of the horizontal eye movements were corrupted by the illusory visual stimulus. We conclude that extraretinal signals played only a minor role, in comparison with visual estimates of the direction of gaze, in planning eye movements to remembered targ
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1. In early local feedback models for controlling horizontal saccade amplitude, a feedback signal of instantaneous eye position is continuously subtracted from a reference signal of desired eye position at a comparator. The output of the comparator is dynamic motor error, the remaining distance the eyes must rotate to reach the saccadic goal. ⋯ Moreover, the peak velocity-amplitude relationships, the instantaneous velocity profiles, and the ratio of horizontal and vertical velocities and durations were very similar to those of visually guided saccades. 7. Independent comparator models can readily account for the ability to manipulate the amplitude of one component of oblique saccades without affecting the other. However, two-dimensional local feedback models that cannot exert independent control over the horizontal and vertical amplitudes of oblique saccades should be carefully reevaluated.