[The pharmacological testing of intracortical interneuronal connections]

An attempt is made to study the influence of acetylcholine on functional connections of cortical neurons and their frequency characteristics. Multiunit activity was recorded in the sensorimotor cortex of immobilized and freely moving rats. Crosscorrelation analysis was used. Influence of acetylcholine (Ach) and Ca chelator ethyleneglicoltetraacetat (EGTA) on the functional characteristics of the neighbouring neurons was studied in the first series of experiments. The substances were iontophoretically applied to the sensorimotor cortex neurons of the immobilized unanesthetized rats. Application of Ach led to variation in the frequency characteristics of single neurons and in the majority cases did not affect the neuronal interrelations. EGTA application, independently on the background frequency of the neuronal activity, resulted in disappearance of interneuronal connections which recovered after the end of EGTA effect. The second series of experiments was carried out in freely moving rats. System injection of galantamine essentially increased the frequency of activity of the cortical neurons not affecting their network activity. We suppose that intracortical relations can be realized independently on the extracortical influences which are manifested in variations in the background impulsation of the single neurons. Qualitative estimation of Ach influence on the functional characteristics of the cortical neurons do not reveal Ach effects on formation of intracortical connections. The technique used by us may be applied in further studies of intracortical neurons connections.