Response pattern of cat hippocampal neurons to stimulation of the septal area during sleep and waking

Abstract

Unitary discharge was recorded extracellularly from cat dorsal hippocampus. The response pattern to electrical stimulation of the septum and regio limbica anterior was examined. There was a definite difference in the response pattern between the basket cell and the theta cell. Cluster analysis of high dimensional data was performed by means of Andrews' function plot. When compared with simple spike cells, complex spike cells showed a greater difference with one another with respect to the variation in the response pattern during different phases of sleep and wakefulness. The response patterns of complex spike cells showed a greater difference with one another during SS and PS than during A. It is suggested that the modulation of hippocampal activity during sleep and wakefulness is, as assessed from the reactivity to septal stimulation, operating more differentially at the output neurons than at its interneurons.