Comparative analysis of the frequency of neuron spike activity in the sensorimotor cortex of the right and left hemispheres in conditions of immobilization catatonia in rabbits.

Multineuron activity was recorded from the sensorimotor cortex of the right and left hemispheres during immobilization catatonia in rabbits. The first session of immobilization of the animals was followed by changes in spike frequency in 47% of neurons in the sensorimotor cortex of the right hemisphere. Of these, 30% showed decreases in spike frequency and 17% showed increases. Spike frequency in the sensorimotor cortex of the left hemisphere changed in only 18% of cells, of which 13% showed decreases in spike frequency and 5% showed increases. The spike frequency of neighboring (recorded with the same electrode) neurons could change reciprocally. Differences in neuron activity in the two hemispheres were virtually absent after the second session of immobilization (several days after the first)--spike activity changed in 21% of neurons in the right hemisphere and 24% in the left hemisphere. The ratios of the numbers of neurons with increases and decreases in spike activity in "hypnosis" also became identical in the cortex of the right and left hemispheres. A hypothesis is proposed for the involvement of cortical neurons in the organization of "hypnosis-like" states.