Interspike interval patterns of taste neurons in the hamster solitary nucleus

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Abstract
The central nervous system first processes taste information in the solitary nucleus, which has been almost exclusively studied in terms of average firing rate. We analyzed interspike intervals (ISI's) of 25 taste-responsive single units in the hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) solitary nucleus. ISI's were measured during spontaneous activity and during stimulation with NaCl, KCl, sucrose, or a mixture of the three, and graphed on semi-logarithmic plots. Two different ISI patterns were evident: simple (13 units) and complex (12 units). Simple ISI patterns had a single broad peak at 284.7 ± 70.4 ms spontaneous and 78.8 ± 12.8 ms stimulated. All complex ISI patterns had one distinct, sharp peak for an interval about 10 ms (11.3 ± 0.4 ms: spontaneous, 9.3 ± 0.5 ms: stimulated), and a second, broader peak at 273.9 ± 45.9 ms spontaneous and 71.5 ± 14.6 ms stimulated. As rate of firing increased peaks in ISI patterns predictably moved towards lower intervals, but ISI pattern-type did not change. This constancy of ISI pattern held for responses of a unit across all stimuli and did not depend upon the stimulus specificity or location of the unit within the rostral pole of the solitary nucleus. Apparently, the pattern that a taste neuron generates is intrinsic to the neuron and may relate to the way it processes tast information.

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