Information transmission of local circuits in the primary visual cortex revealed by juxta-cellular single-cell stimulation

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Detailed description of local neural circuits in the cerebral cortex is important for understanding how visual cortices work. Here, we established a method to stimulate single cortical neuron and analyze how inputs from the neuron affect spiking activities of nearby neurons. Using juxtacellular recording and current stimulation with single glass electrodes we evoked and recorded spikes from single cells (juxta-cells) in the cat visual cortex (area 17). Simultaneously we recorded activities of neighboring cells (nearby-cells) using silicon multi-site electrodes. Current (0.5～3nA) was repetitively applied (0.5 sec ON and 0.5 sec OFF) while blank screen or sinusoidal gratings of various orientations were presented to the eyes. Single cells in the cortex alone can increase or decrease firing rate of nearby cells. The efficacy rate mostly distributes in the range of +/-0.2. For excitatory connection, the efficacy increases linearly (response map) with tuning similarities of pre-neurons (juxta-cells) and post neurons (nearby cells), whereas the efficacy for inhibitory connection does not depend on the tuning similarities.