Fig. 3

Electrophysiological response of NAc neurons to brief or prolonged stimulation. a Schematic representation of NAc electrophysiological recordings. b NAc neurons were separated into three categories according to firing rate and waveform characteristics: putative medium spiny neurons (pMSNs), cholinergic interneurons (pCINs), and fast spiking GABAergic interneurons (pFS). c In D1-cre stimulated mice, 90.1% of recorded cells were classified as pMSNs (64/71 cells), 5.6% as pCINs, and 4.3% as pFS interneurons. During D1-MSNs brief (c′) or prolonged (c″) stimulation, 77% and 44% of the pMSNs increased their activity, respectively. d In D2-cre stimulated mice, 85.5% of recorded cells were pMSNs (59/69 cells), 8.7% pCINs, and 5.8% pFS interneurons. D2-MSNs brief (d′) or prolonged (d″) stimulation increased the activity in 71% and 52% of the pMSNs, respectively. e D1-MSNs brief stimulation increased average firing rate of MSNs. f Temporal variation of the normalized activity of pMSNs that increase (pMSN A) and decrease (pMSN B) activity during the stimulation period (blue). g D1-MSNs prolonged stimulation increased average firing rate of MSNs. h Temporal variation of the normalized activity of pMSNs showing the distinct pattern of response during stimulation (blue). i D2-MSNs brief stimulation increased the average firing rate of MSNs. j Temporal variation of the normalized activity of pMSNs showing the response during stimulation. k Prolonged D2-MSNs stimulation increased average firing rate of MSNs throughout the stimulation period. l Temporal variation of the normalized activity of pMSNs showing the response during stimulation. *p < 0.05. Data are represented as mean ± SEM