Tsumoto T, Freeman R D
Exp Brain Res. 1987;65(3):666-72. doi: 10.1007/BF00235990.
When studied physiologically, dark-reared kittens exhibit abnormal responses. Specifically, cortical cells respond poorly, if at all, to visual stimulation. In the preceding paper (Ramoa et al. 1986) we showed that iontophoretic application of an excitatory amino acid allows all cells in this preparation to be excited or suppressed by visual stimuli. In the current study, we have pursued this finding by studying additional dark-reared kittens using iontophoretic application of an inhibitory antagonist, bicuculline methiodide (BIC). Responses of most cells studied were affected by application of BIC. Of cells which were originally weak or unresponsive, 76% became clearly responsive with application of BIC. Of cells which responded without BIC and were orientation-selective, only 33% lost selectivity during application of BIC. Considered together, these findings suggest functional inhibitory input in dark-reared animals which appears to differ from that in normal kittens with respect to its role in selectivity for stimulus orientation.
当对黑暗饲养的小猫进行生理学研究时，它们会表现出异常反应。具体而言，皮层细胞对视觉刺激的反应很差，甚至根本没有反应。在前一篇论文（拉莫阿等人，1986年）中，我们表明，通过离子电渗法施加兴奋性氨基酸可以使该实验准备中的所有细胞被视觉刺激所兴奋或抑制。在当前的研究中，我们通过对另外一些黑暗饲养的小猫使用离子电渗法施加抑制性拮抗剂甲磺酸荷包牡丹碱（BIC）来进一步探究这一发现。所研究的大多数细胞的反应都受到BIC施加的影响。在最初反应较弱或无反应的细胞中，76%在施加BIC后变得明显有反应。在未使用BIC时就有反应且具有方向选择性的细胞中，只有33%在施加BIC期间失去了选择性。综合来看，这些发现表明黑暗饲养动物中存在功能性抑制性输入，其在刺激方向选择性方面的作用似乎与正常小猫不同。
