LOCUS OF PROPAGATION OF SPREADING CORTICAL DEPRESSION

Abstract

In the neurologically isolated cerebral cortex of the cat, spreading depression is not arrested by (a) sub-pial cuts extending from the bottom of the cortex to the bottom of layer n, or from the pia to the middle of layer V; (b) superfical local anaesthesia; (c) thermocoagulation of layers I-III; (d) destruction of layers IV-VI. Although the threshold for initiation of depression is lowest in layer V, depression may be initiated even when this layer has been destroyed. These facts inidcate that the propagation of depression occurs through the whole thickness of the cortex.