Previous studies have shown that visual cortical neurons in old mammals exhibit higher spontaneous activity,higher responsiveness to visual stimuli,and lower selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions than did neurons in young adult counterparts.However,whether the responsive difference in cortical neurons between young and old animals resulted from different effects induced by anesthetics has remained unclear.To clarify this issue,we recorded the response properties of individual neurons in the primary visual cortex of old and young adult cats while systematically varying the anesthesia level of urethane,a widely used anesthetic in physiology experiments.Our results showed that cumulatively administrating 50 mg and 100 mg of urethane upon the minimal level of urethane required to anesthetize an old or young adult cat did not significantly alter the degree of neuronal response selectivity for stimulus orientations and motion directions nor significantly change the visually-driven response and spontaneous activity of neurons in old and young adult cats.Cumulatively administrating 150 mg of urethane decreased neuronal responsiveness similarly in both age groups.Therefore,urethane appears to exert similar effects on neuronal response properties of old and young adult animals.
Objective To examine whether the selectivity of visual cortical neurons to stimulus spatial frequencies would be affected by aging in cats.Methods In vivo extracellular single-unit recording techniques were employed to record the tuning responses of V1 neurons to different stimulus spatial frequencies in old and young adult cats.Results Statistical analysis showed that the mean optimal spatial frequency of grating stimuli that evoked the maximal response of V1 neurons in old cats was significantly lower than that in young adult cats.Furthermore,the mean high cut-off spatial frequency of grating stimuli that evoked the half amplitude of the maximal response of V1 neurons in old cats was also significantly lower than that in young adult cats.Conclusion These results are consistent with those reported in the V1 of old monkeys,suggesting that the age-related decline in the selectivity of visual cortical cells to spatial frequency could be generalized to all mammalian species and might contribute to visual acuity reduction in senescent individuals.
