Abstract
It has long been known that inhibitory synaptic connections shape and focus the receptive field (RF) organization of cortical neurons (Mountcastle, 1957; Mountcastle and Powell, 1959; Laskin and Spencer, 1979). Neuropharmacological and immunohistochemical investigations of cortical inhibitory mechanisms have emphasized the role of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as a major inhibitory neurotransmitter (Krnjevic and Schwartz, 1967; Houser et al., 1984; Jones, this volume). Consistent with these findings, it has been shown that competitive antagonism of GABAergic transmission in the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex (SI and SII) with bicuculline methiodide (BMI) leads to expansion of the cutaneous RFs of recorded neurons (Dykes et al., 1984; Alloway and Burton, 1986; Alloway et al., 1989). Recent studies by Merzenich and others (Merzenich, 1987; this volume) have shown that various manipulations of the peripheral or corticocortical inputs to SI may alter the RFs of recorded cell clusters; these changes affect the somatotopic organization within SI and, in some cases, the size of RFs. These dynamic shifts in somatotopic representation may be due to unmasking inputs that are not readily seen because of inhibitory mechanisms in the cortex (Killackey, 1989). This implies that the observed changes in cortical organization may be a consequence of altered behavior of existing inhibitory circuits. A finding consistent with this hypothesis would be the demonstration of RF expansions during blockade of GABA transmission that were quantitatively large enough to cover the magnitude of the somatotopic and RF shifts observed following the kinds of peripheral and central manipulations used by Merzenich and others.
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© 1991 Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Burton, H., Alloway, K. (1991). Quantitative Measurements of Receptive Field Changes During Antagonism of GABAergic Transmission in Primary Somatosensory Cortex of Cat and Monkey. In: Franzén, O., Westman, J. (eds) Information Processing in the Somatosensory System. Wenner-Gren Center International Symposium Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11597-6_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11597-6_11
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
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