Stimulation of mediocaudal midbrain in rats produces ipsiversive circling due to the stimulation of longitudinal axons. The refractory periods of these axons were measured by delivering trains of conditioning and testing pulses via a single electrode at various conditioning-testing (C-T) intervals. As C-T interval increased from 0.3 to 2.0 ms, the frequency required to produce a constant amount of circling halved. The current-distance relations of these axons were measured by placing two electrodes lateral to one another, and delivering conditioning pulses via one electrode and testing pulses via the second electrode. The required frequency decreased less at C-T intervals in the refractory period range using two electrodes rather than using a single electrode. This partial refractoriness suggests that only part of the axons were stimulated by both electrodes. The refractoriness increased as current increased or as interelectrode distance decreased. The overlap in the fields of stimulation at each current was calculated from the refractoriness observed in single and double electrode experiments. The results suggest that the axons mediating circling have a wide range of thresholds rather than a single threshold. The current required to activate an axon is roughly equal to K X r2, were K is a constant and r is the radial distance from electrode to axon. K must range from 400 to at least 3000 microA/mm2, to account for the circling data. For axons mediating medial forebrain bundle self-stimulation3, K must range from 1000 to at least 6400 microA/mm2. Estimation of the K distribution allows calculation of the effects of electrode size, placement and current on the recruitment of axons with different thresholds.