Single unit activity in frontal cortex and caudate nucleus of young and old rats

Spontaneous neuronal activity was recorded extracellularly from isolated single units in frontal neocortex and caudate nucleus of young and aged F344 rats anesthetized with urethane. Average firing rates, mean interspike intervals (ISI) +/- standard deviations, and ISI frequency histograms were computed and analyzed by microprocessor. For frontal cortex cells (N = 226), there was a nonsignificant trend toward slower average discharge rates in the old group. However, a significantly longer mean ISI and proportionally more very slow firing cells (less than 1 Hz) were observed in old rats. A laminar analysis of frontal cortex unit activity in young animals showed average discharge rates to be distributed somewhat evenly throughout the cortical mantle with the exception of the zone 1200-1400 mu beneath brain surface. This depth corresponds approximately to layer V where a 50% increase in mean firing rate in young animals was observed. In aged animals, this increased cell firing in layer V was absent, while mean discharge rates in other laminae remained essentially the same in the young and old rat groups. Caudate nucleus cells (n = 70) showed a significant shift towards fewer fast discharging cells in old rats, with the average firing rate diminished by one-third. Although more brain regions need to be examined in a similar fashion, the consistency of the present results with those previously reported for the brainstem and cerebellum suggests that slower firing rates and longer ISIs are likely to be wide-spread throughout the brains of aged rats.