[Evolution of visual evoked responses during various states of vigilance in Papio papio (author's transl)].

Averaged evoked responses (AER) to light flashes were recorded in baboons (Papio papio) during wakefulness, slow-wave sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) periods, at the visual cortex, retrocalcarine sulcus, optic tract (OT), lateral geniculate (LG) and pulvinar. Waking AERs were composed: in the OT, of a negative, low amplitude wave at 13.3 msec (I), a high amplitude wave at 34.8 msec (II), a negative wave at 72 msec (III) and a late component at 151 msec; in the LG, a small positive wave (II) with a peak latency of 40 msec, a high amplitude negative wave (III) with a latency of 70 msec and a late component; in the pulvinar of two low amplitude short latency waves (I and II), respectively negative and positive at 25 msec and 40 msec, then a high amplitude negative wave (III) at 75 msec and a late component; in the retrocalcarine sulcus 3 positive waves (I, II and III) were recorded at 25, 45 and 100 msec and a late component; in the visual cortex, 3 low amplitude negative waves (II, III and IV at 40, 50 and 54 msec, then a positive wave at 80 msec and some late components. In slow-wave sleep, AERs did not change in the OT, but in the LG and pulvinar, they showed an increase in the amplitude of wave II from stage 1 to stage 3. At the cortical level, early waves (II for the retrocalcarine sulcus, II and IV for the visual cortex) presented a marked increase in amplitude during stages 2 and 3, but only a slight increase for stage 1. Peak latency increase of each wave in cortical and subcortical AERs was seen during slow-wave sleep. REM AERs resembled, in amplitude and peak latency, those recorded in the LG and pulvinar during wakefulness; in the visual cortex and retrocalcarine sulcus, they were similar to those obtained during wakefulness and stage 1. In conclusion, a different evoked response was found between visual cortex and deep structures (except for the OT): firstly, during slow-wave sleep (the AERs showed a difference for stage 1 between the visual cortex or the retrocalcarine sulcus and the LG or the pulvinar), secondly, in REM (on the cortex, REM AERs looked like wakefulness and stage 1 responses); on the contrary, in the LG and pulvinar, REM AERs were similar only to those recorded during waking. Finally, it can be said that for Papio papio the differentiation and structural responses between the various stages of sleep (particularly light sleep and REM) were greater in the cortex than in the thalamic structures.