Centrifugal Influence on Olfactory Bulb Activity in the Rabbit

(1) Regions which exert centrifugal influences on the olfactory bulb activity were studied by applying systematic stimulation to various areas of the ipsilateral telencephalon in the rabbit. By delivering electric stimuli to the anterior commissure (AC), the deep lying structures in the projection areas of the lateral olfactory tract (LOT) and the medial forebrain bundle situated between the lateral hypothalamic area and the lateral preoptic area, negative field potentials were evoked in the granule cell layer (GCL) of the bulb. (2) Intracellular recordings from the mitral cells and the GCL neurons in the olfactory bulb were performed in order to clarify the modes of the centrifugal influences on the olfactory bulb neurons. (3) EPSPs were recorded in the GCL neurons by stimulation of the deep-lying structure of the prepiriform cortex as well as by stimulation of the AC. The onset time and duration of the EPSPs corresponded well to those of the negative field potentials in the GCL. Thus, it was suggested that these negative potentials were caused by the EPSPs of the number of granule cells. (4) In almost all of the mitral cells, IPSPs were recorded by stimulation of the AC and the deep-lying structures of the LOT projection areas. The onsets of the IPSPs were found with delays of several milliseconds from those of the negative field potentials in the GCL. (5) It was postulated that the excitation of the centrifugal system mainly exerts a depressive influence on the activity of the mitral cell, and that the GCL neuron (presumably the granule cell) seems to be an inhibitory interneuron interpolated between the extrinsic fibers from the telencephalon and the mitral cell.