Contribution of glia and neurons to the surface-negative potentials of the cerebral cortex during its electrical...

In 20 cats anaesthetized with pentobarbital the suprasylvian gyrus was stimulated by single stimuli or by trains of 50 s stimuli and the potentials from the cortical surface and the intracellular potentials from glial and nerve cells were recorded. Glial cells were identified according to conventional electrophysiological criteria: the absence of action potentials and postsynaptic potentials; slow depolarization in response to electrical stimulation. The slow negativity of direct response to a single stimulus is similar in shape and time course to the depolarization of the cortical glial cells and is unlike the hyperpolarization of the cortical neurons. Quantitative analysis showed that the basic part of the slow negativity is the glial component, whereas the neuronal component--inhibitory postsynaptic potential--plays a much lesser role. The negative shift of the potential on the cortical surface evoked by its high-frequency stimulation is similar in shape and time course to the depolarization shift of the membrane potential of the cortical glial cells (the mean value and standard error of time to peak for glial depolarization were 567.6 +/- 26.8 ms and 427 +/- 24 ms for negative shift of potential). (The results are based on recordings from 37 cells.) The negative shift decays much quicker; it is not similar in shape and time course to the hyperpolarization shift of the neuronal membrane potentials (the mean value and standard error of time to peak for inhibitory postsynaptic potential was 44.9 +/- 4.5 ms). According to the quantitative analysis, the negative shift of the potential reflects mainly the depolarization of the cortical glial cells. The contribution of the hyperpolarization of neurons to the surface-negative shift can be distinctly observed during the first 0.2-0.3 s of stimulation. It is supposed that accumulation of K+ ions in intercellular clefts results in depolarization of glial syncytium, which is reflected on the cortical surface as a slow negativity and a negative shift of the potential.