Properties of cholinoceptive neurones in the medial geniculate nucleus

1. Acetylcholine (ACh), other cholinomimetics, cholinesterase inhibitors and cholinergic antagonists were administered iontophoretically to medial geniculate (MG) neurones and their effects on chemically or neurally evoked responses recorded extracellularly.2. Acetylcholine had excitant actions on 45% of the neurones tested. Most of these were of a slow time course. Desensitization to the excitant effects was frequently observed.3. Acetylcholine excited 91% of neurones activated antidromically by stimulation of the auditory cortex, 71% of neurones activated synaptically from the auditory cortex, 74% of neurones activated from the inferior colliculus and 100% of geniculo-cortical relay neurones.4. Acetylcholine had depressant effects, which were generally of a rapid time course, on 29% of MG neurones. No desensitization to the depressant effects was observed.5. On 4% of neurones, ACh had both excitant and depressant effects. Such "dual" effects were manifested either as an initial excitation followed by a depression, or as a depression followed by an excitation.6. Eserine, neostigmine and edrophonium potentiated both excitant and depressant actions of ACh on many cells. Neostigmine and edrophonium occasionally antagonized the effects of ACh.7. Atropine, hyoscine, dihydro-beta-erythroidine, hexamethonium and (+)-tubocurarine antagonized both excitant and depressant effects of ACh. The muscarinic blocking agents were usually more effective than the nicotinic agents.8. Carbamylcholine, acetyl-beta-methylcholine, nicotine, butyrylcholine, arecoline and pilocarpine had excitant, depressant or no effects on MG neurones. Generally, carbamylcholine was more potent than acetyl-beta-methylcholine and ACh, which were more potent than nicotine. Butyrylcholine, arecoline and pilocarpine were even less potent, often having no effect.9. The cholinomimetics generally had similar effects to those of ACh on the same neurones, but sometimes were quite different. Carbamylcholine, acetyl-beta-methylcholine and nicotine antagonized the effects of ACh on some neurones.10. The results suggest that cholinoceptive receptors on MG neurones are not homogeneous. Although there are possibly some purely muscarinic and purely nicotinic receptors, the majority appear to be of intermediate muscarinic-nicotinic type. These mediate either excitation or inhibition.