[High mental functions in healthy individuals and in cerebrovascular diseases]. / Vysshie psikhicheskie funktsii v norme i pri tserebrovasculiarnykh zabolevanii.

A knowledge of time parameters of the high mental functions of the brain under normal and pathological conditions may serve as a key to understanding of their intimate mechanisms. During the first stage of the study a set of different tests including "word association", "paired words learning" was used to compare these indices in patients with atherosclerotic discirculatory encephalopathy and in normal individuals. The dynamics and volume of the short-term memory and processes of attention were evaluated. An increase of the response latencies in the paired words' tests and a decrease of both volume of short-term memory and the processes of attention were identified. Application of the tests with semantically similar or unlike words was informative.

[The effect of stimulation of the raphe nucleus on the electrical activity of the cerebellar nuclei]. / Vliianie stimuliatsii iadra shva na élektricheskuiu aktivnost' iader mozzhechka.

The stimulation of pontine raphe nucleus evoked field potentials in all the cerebellar nuclei in rats. The field potentials were weak in interpositus nucleus. The neuronal reactions in cerebellar nuclei were mainly inhibitory and quite obvious in fastigial and dentate nuclei.

[Functional features of the receptive fields of neurons of the posterior temporal cortex of the cat]. / Funktsional'nye osobennosti retseptivnykh polei neironov zadnevisochnoi kory koshki.

Dynamic characteristics of the visual receptive fields (RF) of neurones in the postero-temporal cortical area (field 21) of alert cat were studied in prolonged repeated testings of RFs in the absence of influence controlled in the experiment. Significant fluctuations of RFs were found in the studied neurones--in changes of RFs form, their size and orientation and also in RF fragmentation, i.e. simultaneous and/or alternating appearance of separate zones (discharge centers) of RFs in the process of testing. It is suggested that plasticity and variability of neurones' RFs in time in this study are mainly due to modulating effects of extravisual structures, uncontrolled in the test,--to reticular inputs in particular.

[Adaptability of the receptive fields of neurons of the posterior temporal cortex and their sensitivity to parameters of photic stimulation in the cat]. / Adaptivnost' retseptivnykh polei neironov zadnevisochnoi kory i ikh chuvstvitel'nost' k parametram svetovoi stimuliatsii u koshek.

Study of receptive fields (RFs) of neurones in the postero-temporal cortex (field 21) of alert cat at three levels of visual adaptation: light photopic, light mesopic and practically dark or extremely low scotopic adaptations--revealed invariance of the most part of the studied RFs to the level of visual adaptation. Reorganization of RFs, connected with change of background luminosity were observed only in 12% of visually activated neurones. Significant reduction of responses to optic stimulation is shown at increase of the level of luminosity in 75% of neurones, revealing adaptive reorganizations. It is suggested that these reorganizations may take place in analogy with neurones of the field 17 on account of different involvement of intracortical inhibitory mechanisms (and, probably, not only in the postero-temporal cortex, but also in structures which precede it in visual hierarchy). Study of neurones sensitivity in the field 21 to parameters of optic stimulation revealed their considerable invariance to the length and orientation of the optic stimulus moving through the RF (60% of cases). Testing of RF by a rhombic optic stimulus did not change neuronal reactions, the form and dimensions of RF did not significantly change.

[Characteristics of the receptive fields of neurons of the posterior temporal area of the cortex of the cat]. / Kharakteristiki retseptivnykh polei neironov zadnevisochnoi oblasti kory koshki.

In records of 219 single units in the posterotemporal cortical area (field 21) of nonanaesthetized cats, 51% of cells reacted to visual stimulation. The neurones had receptive fields (RFs) with central (0-10 degrees) or peripheral (10-52 degrees) localization in the visual field, their size increasing with eccentricity. Carting of RFs by a light bar scanning the visual field revealed a considerable variability of RFs shape, size and orientation in different cells. RFs sizes of the majority of recorded cells (100-1000 grad) were very large and exceeded the size of large RFs of neurones in the primary projection zone of the visual cortex.