Private inhibitory systems for the X and Y pathways in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the cat.

1. Inhibitory connections of X- and Y-type principal cells in the cat's dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus were studied with intracellular recording techniques in barbiturate-anaesthetized animals. Cells were identified as principal cells by antidromic activation from the visual cortex and as X or Y types by their responses to visual stimulation. 2. Graded electrical stimulation was used to obtain selective activation of X and Y ganglion cell axons. The optic nerves were stimulated through ring electrodes behind the eye bulbs and the evoked nerve volley was monitored by an optic tract electrode. The nerve volley consisted of two well-segregated components, an early, low-threshold Y component and a late, high-threshold X component. 3. All principal cells received monosynaptic excitation and disynaptic feed-forward inhibition from optic nerve fibres. The excitatory and inhibitory postsynaptic potentials were evoked by Y axons in Y cells and by X axons in X cells. Thus, the feed-forward inhibitory pathway to principal cells is type selective. 4. Recurrent inhibition was evoked in all cells by antidromic activation of principal cell axons in the visual cortex. The recurrent inhibitory potentials had significantly shorter latencies in Y than in X cells but with considerable overlap between the two samples. This overlap presumably reflects a similar overlap in antidromic conduction times for X and Y principal cell axons. 5. Recurrent inhibitory potentials evoked in the orthodromic direction by optic nerve stimulation originated from Y axons in Y principal cells and from X axons in X cells as would be expected for a type-selective recurrent inhibitory pathway. 6. It is concluded that X and Y principal cells in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus have similar but functionally separate inhibitory circuits.