EFFECT OF ETHANOL ON BASE ACTIVITY OF NEURONS OF THE LATERAL VESTIBULAR NUCLEUS IN THE CAT

Experiments with cats immobilized with arduane showed that a single intravenous injection of ethanol (1 g/kg) affects 95% of the neurons of the lateral vestibular nucleus. In 56.5% of the neurons that have predominantly high-frequency base activity of the continuously arrhythmic type, injecting ethanol decreased impulse frequency by 84-93%. In 14.5% of the cells, mainly with bundle-group type activity, there was first an increase in average discharge frequency, the duration of the bundles and number of impulses in them, were replaced by a sharp inhibition of base activity, even complete suppression, in 20-30 min after ethanol injection. In 23.6% of the neurons, predominantly with an initial low frequency of base activity, a clear excitation effect developed and was recorded over the whole period of observation. Restoration of base activity to the original level usually did not occur even after 90 min. Repeated injection of the same dose of ethanol had a cumulative effect.