Vachon M P, Miliaressis E
School of Psychology, University of Ottawa, Canada.
Behav Brain Res. 1994 Feb 28;60(2):177-82. doi: 10.1016/0166-4328(94)90145-7.
We used the double-pulse technique with moveable electrodes to estimate the refractory periods of self-stimulation neurons within the rat's dorsal diencephalon and surrounding areas. Refractory period estimates varied substantially depending on the site of stimulation. For some sites, recovery from refractoriness was noted at post-stimulation intervals as short as 0.5 ms, an estimate similar to that reported for the MFB axis and the dorsal raphe and periaqueductal grey. The longest recovery intervals were similar to those reported for the prefrontal cortex, caudate, and substantia nigra. Step-like recovery (believed to indicate the presence of neural populations with non overlapping refractory periods) was also noted in several sites. The large range of recovery intervals found in the present study may suggest that the diencephalon plays an integrative role for rewarding signals arriving from various brain areas.
我们使用带有可移动电极的双脉冲技术来估计大鼠背侧间脑及周围区域内自我刺激神经元的不应期。不应期估计值因刺激部位的不同而有很大差异。对于某些部位，在刺激后短至0.5毫秒的间隔内就观察到了从不应状态的恢复，这一估计值与中脑腹侧被盖区轴、背侧中缝核以及导水管周围灰质所报告的相似。最长的恢复间隔与前额叶皮质、尾状核和黑质所报告的相似。在几个部位还观察到了阶梯状恢复（据信这表明存在不应期不重叠的神经群体）。本研究中发现的恢复间隔范围很广，这可能表明间脑对来自不同脑区的奖赏信号发挥着整合作用。
