[Stationary exitation according to A.A. Ukhtomskiĭ and its role in the mechanism of completion of temporary connections].

When recording potentials form the cortical surface, an increase in the processes of local excitation was shown to occur at the moment of revealing the first signs of the conditioned reflex: appearing of slow waves, increasing amplitude of evoked potentials, negative shift of the cortical steady potential. When recording evoked potentials from deep cortical layers, successive stages of transition of the local excitation into a spread one which carries out the conditioning, were shown. Stationary depolarization occurring in conditioning and revealed in gross forms as slow waves, increasing amplitude of evoked potentials, and negative shift of steady potential, at the cellular level is revealed as formation of neuron's polysensory acitvity and is usually followed by increase in the action potential (AP) duration in neurons of the cortical ends of analysers participating in conditioning. Etimizol is known to improve memory processes in man and in animals (2). When acting on the mollusk neurons, etimizol increases AP duration by 144 plus or minus 64 percent. The data obtained suggest that the observed in conditioning increase of AP durration of neurons in the cortical representation of conditioned and unconditioned stimuli is associated with alterations in ion exchange and with trace processes in neurons, which apparently is related to the fine mechanisms underlying the retention in memory.