Periaqueductal gray spike trains recorded in frontal or horizontal mesencephalic brain slices from the rat

Spontaneous spike trains were recorded from the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) in frontal and horizontal mesencephalic slices in order to compare spontaneous activity of the slice preparation to previous in vivo records. The firing rates resembled those recorded in vivo. They were low notwithstanding the fact that the slicing procedure removed tonic inhibitory input to the PAG. The firing rates increased caudo-rostrally, a fact that had not been reported in vivo, and were lower in frontal sections. Several different spike trains were found, described and classified according to their temporal firing patterns. The spike sequences were usually simple stochastic processes, distributed as a Gaussian function with or without stochastic deletion of spikes.