An in vitro preparation and study of cells in cat visual cortex

We have described full details of the preparation of slices from the visual cortex of cats. Then, we presented the results concerning the effects of the deprivation of glucose from the circulating medium on neuronal activities in the slices and the electrophysiological criteria for identifying glial cells in the sliced brain tissues. The results indicated that transsynaptic responses were reversibly blocked within 10-20 min, while nonsynaptic responses continued for more than 60 min in the glucose-free medium. We showed that glial cells could be identified according to the criteria proposed in in vivo experiments.