The inhibitory role of the visually responsive region of the thalamic reticular nucleus in the rat.

Two-shock inhibition, a feature of 98 of 100 P cells recorded in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus of the normal rat, was not observed in 91 of 140 geniculate cells after an electrolytic lesion had been made in the adjacent visually responsive thalamic reticular nucleus. Nine geniculate cells recorded both before and after a reticular lesion had their initial inhibition abolished or substantially reduced after the lesion. The reticular lesion eliminated the bursts of spikes which normally terminate periods of inhibition following electrical or photic stimulation but caused no other changes in receptive field organization of geniculate cells. We conclude that the visually responsive region of the thalamic reticular nucleus in the rat is responsible for the profound two-shock inhibition and for the post-inhibitory bursts which are normal properties of relay cells of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus.