[Neuronal activity of the cat visual cortex during the sleep--wakefulness cycle].

The changes in background neuronal activity of the visual cortex during the sleep-waking cycle were studied in the dark adapted chronic cats. Neither pattern nor frequency of discharges of the investigated cells were significantly different in waking state and paradoxical sleep. The interspike interval histograms and autocorrelograms were used to evaluate the changes in the patterns of cell discharges. Slow sleep differs noticeably from the wakening state and paradoxical sleep due to the burst-pause pattern appearance in cell discharges.