Search

Receptor-like tyrosine kinase IRR (the insulin receptor-related receptor) can be activated by extra- cellular alkaline media. IRR is found in organs that come in contact with liquids of extremal pH, and also in specific cells of the nervous systems where its function is not known. In this study, we analyzed the phenotype of IRR knockout mice in a series of behavioral tests. In control experi- ments, null-mutation littermate mice were analyzed. In the "Social interaction" test, the knockout animals showed a reduced number of social contacts. No statistically significant differences in im- mobility time were revealed in the "Forced swim" test, yet the number of animals that showed pro- longed immobility time, was higher in the group of knockout mice. In the "Resident-intruder" test, wild-type mice demonstrated their typical aggressive behavior whereas 7 out of 16 knockout animals stayed inert and, in contrast, attacked by the intruder. The obtained data suggest that the IRR gene inactivation results in disturbances of the aggressive-defensive behavior typical of the parental mouse strain.

The latent excitation focus in the sensorimotor cortex of rabbits was formed by a series of pulses of the threshold current applied on a paw with 2-second intervals. After repeated applications of the routine immobilization procedure, besides the 2-second starts of the paw in response to testing stimulus, spontaneous starts appeared with the intervals close to 3 and 4 seconds. The analysis of the coincident (interconnected) activity of pairs of nearby neurons in the sensorimotor cortex of three rabbits repeatedly exposed to the immobilization procedure showed that (a) in situations when animals made movements with the intervals of 2 seconds, the 2-second rhythm prevailed in the coincident activity of neurons; (b) during movements made with the 3-second interval, a 3-second rhythm was more frequently revealed in the coincident activity of cells, (c) in the situations when the animals did not make movements, either 2-, or 3-second rhythms were equiprobably observed in the connected activity of nearby neurons. In all these three situations, the 2-second rhythm prevailed in the connected activity of distant neurons, i.e., the rhythm which was imposed to animals during formation of the latent center of excitation.

The EEG spectral analysis applied to electrical brain activity of rabbits in the state of animal hypnosis revealed a 2-4-fold increase in the power of the sigma frequency band (12-17 Hz) and a 1.5-2-fold decrease in the gamma frequency (especially 40-70 Hz) in addition to well-known growth of delta (0.3-3 Hz) and reduction of theta activity (4-8 Hz). The changes were more prominent in the frontal cortex areas. The influence of hypnotic state on cortical gamma activity pharmacologically augmented by ketamine injection was analyzed. Administration of subanesthetic ketamine doses led to behavioral locomotor excitation of an animal accompanied by a long-lasting (up to 2 h) increase in the gamma electrical activity. If the animal hypnosis was induced after the ketamine injection, it resulted in an almost instant reorganization of the spectral power. The slow-wave power increased and the gamma-power decreased to the baseline levels. Thus, the animal hypnosis eliminated the reorganization of cortical rhythmicity produced by ketamine, which suggests a stabilizing and, to a certain extent, protective function of this kind of hypnosis in the states of behavioral locomotion and stress.

A hidden excitation focus (dominanta focus) was produced in the rabbit's CNS by threshold electrical stimulation of the left forelimb with the frequency of 0.5 Hz. As a rule, after the formation of the focus, pairs of neurons with prevailing two-second rhythm in their correlated activity were revealed both in the left and right sensorimotor cortices (with equal probabilities 29.3 and 32.4%, respectively). After "animal hypnosis" induction, the total percent of neuronal pairs with the prevalent dominanta-induced rhythm decreased significantly only in the right hemisphere (21%). After the termination of the "animal hypnosis" state, percent of neuronal pairs in the right cortex with prevailing two-second rhythm significantly increasead if the neurons in a pair were neighboring and decreased if they were remote from each other. Similar changes after the hypnotization were not found in the left cortex. Analysis of correlated activity of neuronal pairs with regard to amplitude characteristics showed that for both the right and left hemispheres, the prevalence of the two-second rhythm was more frequently observed in crosscorrelation histograms constructed regarding discharges of neurons with the lowest spike amplitude (in the right hemisphere) or the lowest and mean amplitudes (in the left hemisphere) selected from multiunit records.

Defensive dominanta was produced in four rabbits with electrodermal rhythmic stimulation of the left fore paw with the frequency of 0.5 Hz. During testing the dominanta with acoustical stimuli, the paw muscles responded with either a decrease in its non-rhythmic activity or rhythmic quiver with the frequency close to that of electrodermal stimulation. In intersignal periods, the paw shuddered with mean intervals of about 2 seconds. After the hypnotization procedure, the intersignal paw shudders in three rabbits became longer (1.5-6 minutes) and more powerful (the amplitude of movements 1.5-2 times increased as compared to that before the hypnotization). The intervals between movements of a paw increased from 2 to 4.5 seconds.