Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University College of Medicine, 2900 Queen Lane, Philadelphia, PA 19129, USA.
J Neurophysiol. 2011 Apr;105(4):1495-505. doi: 10.1152/jn.01085.2010. Epub 2011 Jan 27.
Neocortex network activity changes from a deactivated state during quiescence to an activated state during arousal and vigilance. In urethane-anesthetized rats, cortical activation is readily produced by either stimulating the brainstem reticular formation or by application of cholinergic agonists into the thalamus. We studied the effects of cortical activation on spontaneous activity and sensory responses in the barrel cortex. Cortical activation leads to a suppression of low-frequency sensory responses and to a reduction in their variability due to the abolishment of up and down membrane potential fluctuations in cortical cells. Overall, sensory responses become sharper and more reliable during cortical activation.
大脑新皮层的网络活动在安静时处于去激活状态，在觉醒和警觉时变为激活状态。在氨基甲酸乙酯麻醉的大鼠中，刺激脑干网状结构或在丘脑内应用胆碱能激动剂很容易引起皮质激活。我们研究了皮质激活对桶状皮层自发活动和感觉反应的影响。皮质激活导致低频感觉反应的抑制，并且由于皮质细胞的膜电位上下波动的消除，其可变性降低。总的来说，在皮质激活期间，感觉反应变得更加锐利和可靠。
