Responses from new receptive fields of VPL neurones following deafferentation

SINGLE unit recordings were made from the ventral posterior lateral thalamus of anaesthetized rats to characterize responses to the activation of new receptive fields induced by either local anaesthesia or amputation. Receptive fields confined to single digits were identified and evoked unit responses to the stimulation of single digits were quantitated before and after deafferentation. Although both methods of denervation rapidly induced similar new receptive fields from the adjacent single digit, they exhibited quite different temporal changes of the evoked unit responses from new receptive fields. This difference in the evoked unit responses from the new receptive fields may be related to either the different nature or the outcome of the two types of deafferentation.