A. Rojas, J. Herrera, M. Delpiano
1971
Citations
0
Influential Citations
5
Citations
Quality indicators
Journal
Vision research
Abstract
Abstract Harmaline is a potent hallucinogenic drug as demonstrated by clinical studies. The purpose of this work was to study the effect of Harmaline on some electrophysiological responses at various levels of the rat visual system. The intravenous injection of 2 mg/kg provokes typical changes of the ERG in the albino rat. The late receptor potential is enhanced both in magnitude and duration. Theb-wave amplitude diminishes, while its duration increases. Another characteristics effects of the drug on theb-wave is the appearance of additional rapid oscillatory wavelets. Evoked responses elicited by electrical stimulation of the optic nerve in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus, were reversibly abolished by intra-arterial injection of 2–8 mg/kg of Harmaline. The suppression of presynaptic potentials in the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus indicates that this hallucinogen diminishes the excitability of the optic nerve fibers. This anaesthetic property of Harmaline was also observed in the Saphenous nerve. Intravenous injection of the drug augments both threshold and latency, and reduces the size of the action potential. Experiments performed in squid axons demonstrated that Harmaline reversibly decrease, Na conductance without alteringK conductance.