Intracellular recordings from association cortical areas 5 and 7 were performed in cats under barbiturate or ketamine-xylazine anesthesia to investigate the activities of different classes of neurons involved in callosal pathways, which were electrophysiologically characterized by depolarizing current steps. Excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSPs), inhibitory postsynaptic potentials (IPSPs), and/or antidromic responses were elicited by stimulating homotopic sites in the contralateral cortical areas. Differential features of EPSPs related to latencies, amplitudes, and slopes were detected in closely located (50 microm or less) neurons recorded in succession along the same electrode track. In contrast to synchronous thalamocortical volleys that excited most neurons within a cortical column, stimuli applied to homotopic sites in the contralateral cortex activated neurons at restricted cortical depths. Median latencies of callosally evoked EPSPs were 1.5 to 4 ms in various cortical cell-classes. Fast-rhythmic-bursting neurons displayed EPSPs whose amplitudes were threefold larger, and latencies two- or threefold shorter, than those found in the three other cellular classes. Converging callosal and thalamic inputs were recorded in the same cortical neuron. EPSPs or IPSPs were elicited by stimulating foci spaced by <1 mm in the contralateral cortex. In the overwhelming majority of neurons, latencies of antidromic responses were between 1.2 and 3.1 ms; however, some callosal neurons had much longer latencies, <or=18.5 ms. Some neurons were excited monosynaptically through the callosal pathway and identified antidromically from appropriate thalamic nuclei, thus revealing a callosal-corticothalamic pathway. Data are discussed in relation to the commissural spread of fast and slow normal oscillations as well as paroxysmal activities.