Cortical responses to paired stimuli applied peripherally and at sites along the somato-sensory pathway

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Abstract
Experiments have been performed on animals anaesthetized with various anesthetics to determine the responsiveness of the cortex to the second of a pair of identical stimuli applied at three sites along the sensory pathway, i.e. to the periphery, the medial lemniscus and to thalamocortical fibres. It has been found that in deeply anesthetized animals the mass response recorded from the cerebral cortex to the second of a pair of peripheral or lemniscal stimuli became reduced in size if the interval between the stimuli was 30-500 msec. If the interval was less than 30 msec for peripheral stimuli or between 10 and 30 msec for lemniscal stimuli responses were not obtained to the second stimulus. This was found to be a basic pattern which could be modified in animals less deeply anesthetized. In these animals, periods of relatively increased responsiveness were seen after peripheral stimulation. The post-synaptic responses recorded from the ventrobasal thalamus showed the same behavior to the second of a pair of peripheral stimuli as did the cortex both as regards size and latency of the responses. The post-synaptic responses recorded from the cuneate nucleus rarely showed any reduction in size unless the separation between the stimuli was 10 msec or less; even at intervals as low as 3 msec there was no increase in the latency of the response. When a pair of stimuli were applied to thalamocortical fibres, a different pattern of cortical response to stimulation at pre-thalamic sites was reduced or abolished, the response to stimulation at post-thalamic sites was unaltered or increased in size. Finally an attempt was made to correlate the mass response recorded from the cortical surface and the activity of single cortical cells. Two types of cell could be distinguished in the rat. Those lying from 0.35 to 1.2 mm deep in the cortex showed a response pattern, to paired stimuli, closely resembling that of the cortical mass response. Others situated deeper in the cortex were found which had a very long absolute unresponsive time, from 50 to 80 msec and a very long relative unresponsive time of 1 sec.