Recovery of Responsiveness of Cells of Lateral Geniculate Nucleus of Rat

1. Recovery of responsiveness of single cells in lateral geniculate nucleus of rat has been determined in both P and I cells. There are three types of recovery curve among P cells; (a) early recovery, (b) early partial recovery followed by depression and then complete recovery, (c) prolonged depression followed by cyclic recovery. Type (c) is by far the commonest recovery curve. In contrast to the spike in a P cell, the synaptic potential recovers to its full amplitude in about 20 msec. All I cells exhibit similar rapid recovery curves after a prolonged depression.2. Conditioning stimuli applied to visual cortex also produce a prolonged depression in most P cells but I cells can be re-excited at short intervals from cortex. Decortication does not prevent the prolonged depression of the multineuronal response produced by optic nerve stimulation.3. A neuronal model is proposed to explain these observations. It is supposed that I cells (interneurones) are innervated by axon collaterals of the P cells (principal cells, projecting to visual cortex) and that the I cells exert an inhibitory influence on the P cells.