ELECTRICAL ACTIVITY OF THE CEREBRAL CORTEX IN THE UNANESTHETIZED CAT

Experiments upon the electrical activity of the higher brain centers in animals maintained under some form of anesthesia and held in a restricting holder have raised the question as to how this activity can be compared to that of the normal unrestrained animal. The present study was undertaken in the attempt to obtain potentials directly from various cortical surfaces while the cat was under dial anesthesia and when sit was completely unanesthetized and unrestrained. This included 1, a technique for maintaining electrodes in the skull so that records could be repeated over several days on the same animal; 2, simultaneous recording from four heterologous regions of one hemisphere; 3, comparison of the simultaneous activity from bilaterally homologous areas ; 4, controlled conditions of specific and generalized stimulation; 5, a comparison of results from both monopolar and bipolar methods of recording, and 6, complete autopsies with microscopic sections through the regions beneath the electrodes.