The temporal organization of the correlational association of neurons of the cat motor cortex

Abstract

The multineuronal activity was recorded in cats with a developed conditioned food-procuring reflex to time. Cross-correlation histograms were plotted on the basis of the impulse activity of individual neurons isolated from the multineuronal activity, and an analysis was made of the distribution in real time of the impulses constituting the peaks on these histograms. The secondary analysis of the histograms made it possible to identify the dynamics of the changes in the functional connections between neurons over the course of the phase of active waiting on the basis of the distribution of coupled impulses. It was demonstrated in simultaneously recorded neuronal pairs that the concentration of coupled impulses was observed at various moments in time. Neuronal pairs, the concentration of whose coupled impulses is found towards the end of the conditioned reflex interval, were noted; this is regarded as the manifestation of a conditioned reflex reaction at the level of interneuronal interaction.

Real-time distribution of linked spike activity in cortical neurons during learning in the cat

“…Of 45 neuron pairs recorded in four experiments, 12 pairs (26.6%) showed increases in the frequency of linked spike activity at the moment of presentation of the conditioned stimulus; for several pairs, this increase in frequency was demonstrated in two to four fragments of a single experiment. In two cats in which CRT was developed, of 38 neuron pairs recorded in six experiments, increases in the frequency of linked spike activity at the point at which the conditioned reflex interval ended were seen in nearly one third of cases -46% in one animal and 24% in the other [4]. Neuronal activity in these animals was analyzed only for the second half of the conditioned reflex interval (the active waiting (AW) phase), since the aim of these studies was to identify changes occurring at the level of interneuron interactions with the animals' behavior.…”

“…In this report we present only a number of fragments of these experiments, which were not included in the previous report [4], but which are very important primarily because they allowed us to consider the distribution of linked spikes at the earliest stages of the experiment. Figure 2 shows the dynamics of linked spikes and the distribution of spikes of initial spike trains on the first day of the experiment involving training to the CRT in previously untrained cats.…”

“…We will consider one of these connections over four 50-see trace fragments. The first two of these (I, 2) are control fragments, and the next two (3,4) represent the second half of the conditioned reflex interval for the 12th and 15th presentations of meat on the first day of the experiment (Fig. 2).…”

“…Our first studies of the structures of linked discharges showed [5, 17] that the real-time interval between linked spikes can vary over a wide range, lasting from several milliseconds to several seconds. We then demonstrated [4] that linked spike activity is a self-supporting process, developing on the basis of spontaneous spike trains, but differing from the latter in their association with particular functions.We report here an attempt to determine whether concentration of linked spikes, which we have previously observed [4] at the moment preceding presentation of an unconditioned stimulus, is characteristic only of the particular model of behavior in which time itself is the conditioned component (a conditioned reflex to time), or whether this effect is of a more general nature, independent of the type of learning. …”

The time distribution of linked spike activity of rabbit sensorimotor cortex neurons in the presence of a rhythmic motor dominant

“…The very first analysis of linked spike activity, in the cat motor cortex [4,10], performed in real time, showed that the interval between linked spikes could vary over a wide range, lasting from several milliseconds to several seconds. Subsequent studies established [3] that linked spike activity is an independent process based on spontaneous spike discharges but differing from these in terms of its involvement in particular physiological functions. Linked spikes from some pairs of neurons…”