This study bears on the control exerted by neurotransmitters on the expression of a 40-Hz pacemaker activity observed in reticular thalamic cells. Experiments were conducted in urethane-anaesthetized rats using extracellular recordings and local applications of antagonists against the neurotransmitters involved in the modulation of reticular thalamic cells. All drugs were dissolved in a Ringer's solution (pH 7.4) and were applied in small quantities (25-150 nl) by pressure through one barrel of a micropipette assembly. Forty-Hertz firing was abolished by local application of the alpha 1 antagonist prazosin and by bilateral lesion of the locus coeruleus. Local applications of glutamate antagonists reduced the rate of discharges by 30-50% as did cortical cooling or complete transection of the internal capsule. Conversely, scopolamine exerted a permissive action on the expression of 40-Hz activities; many spontaneously bursting units started firing at 40 Hz under the influence of this muscarinic antagonist. Since reticular thalamic cells are GABAergic and synaptically coupled via axonal collaterals, we investigated how GABAergic drugs affected the regular firing of these cells. Local applications of bicuculline produced a transient increase of the firing rates while the application of GABA induced intermittent pauses on a background of regular discharges. The application of piperidine-4-sulphonic acid, a GABAA receptor agonist, produced a similar effect. The length of pauses generated by piperidine was statistically analysed. It was found that the duration of short pauses was a multiple integer of the mean interspike interval of surrounding discharges. The preservation of the period and phase of the rhythm across the pauses implies that a subthreshold oscillation was presented into the cells during the arrests of discharges. Given the mode of action of noradrenaline and acetylcholine on reticular thalamic neurons, and considering a possible metabotropic action of glutamate, the above results suggest that deactivation of a leaky K conductance is critically involved in the regular firing of these cells in urethane-anaesthetized rats. Alternatively, because reticular cells are coupled via inhibitory synapses, it is proposed that the 40-Hz firing frequency reflects, in the frequency domain, a point of equilibrium in the reticular thalamic network when the leaky K conductance is fully deactivated by the metabotropic effects of monoamines and/or excitatory amino acids.