en Behavioral Neuroscience Behavioral Neuroscience Original Original <p dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"><strong>Introduction:</strong> Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) is a chemical often used as a solvent for waterinsoluble&nbsp;drugs. In this study, we evaluated the effect of intracerebroventricular (ICV)&nbsp;administration of DMSO on neural response characteristics (in 1200&ndash;1500 &mu;m depth) of the rat&nbsp;barrel cortex.<br> <strong>Methods:</strong> DMSO solution was prepared in 10% v/v concentration and injected into the lateral&nbsp;ventricle of rats. Neuronal spontaneous activity and neuronal responses to deflection of the&nbsp;principal whisker (PW) and adjacent whisker (AW) were recorded in barrel cortex. A condition&nbsp;test ratio (CTR) was used to measure inhibitory receptive fields in barrel cortex.<br> <strong>Results:</strong> The results showed that both PW and AW evoked ON and OFF responses, neuronal&nbsp;spontaneous activity and inhibitory receptive fields did not change following ICV administration&nbsp;of DMSO.<br> <strong>Conclusion: </strong>Results of this study suggest that acute ICV administration of 10% DMSO did&nbsp;not modulate the electrophysiological characteristics of neurons in the l deep ayers of rat barrel&nbsp;cortex.</p> DMSO, Electrophysiology, Somatosensory cortex, Rats 213 220 http://bcn.iums.ac.ir/browse.php?a_code=A-10-147-3&slc_lang=en&sid=1 Narjes Soltani hasti_javan@yahoo.com 1370031947532846007941 1370031947532846007941 No Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Elham Mohammadi emohammadi91@gmail.com 1370031947532846007942 1370031947532846007942 No Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Mohammad Allahtavakoli mohammadatir@yahoo.com 1370031947532846007943 1370031947532846007943 No Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Ali Shamsizadeh alishamsy@gmail.com 1370031947532846007944 1370031947532846007944 Yes Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. Ali Roohbakhsh aroohbakhsh@yahoo.com 1370031947532846007945 1370031947532846007945 No Pharmaceutical Research Center, School of Pharmacy, Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, Mashhad, Iran. Abbas Haghparast haghparast@yahoo.com 1370031947532846007946 1370031947532846007946 No Neuroscience Research Center, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.