Abstract
Extracellular single-unit recording was conducted in hypothalamic arcuate (ARC) and suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) in rat brain slices. The perifusion medium was switched from normal artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF) to ACSF containing low Ca 2+ and high Mg 2+ to test the effect of extracellular calcium on the spontaneous activities of these neurons and their responses to some test agents. It was found that almost all of the ARC and SCN units tested increased their firing rates in low Ca 2+, high Mg 2+ ACSF, and exhibited more significant responses to excitatory test agents. The effects of low Ca 2+, high Mg 2+ ACSF were repeatable and reversible. The results suggest that extracellular Ca 2+ is essential in maintaining the membrane stability of most hypothalamic neurons and most agents tested are acting postsynaptically on the unit recorded.
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