Figure 1
The control and NR1DATCreERT2 mice differ in respect to spontaneous and NMDA-induced firing of DA-like neurons in VTA and SNc.
Panels (a,b,c and d) show fragments of raw recordings from four different DA-like cells located in VTA and SNc of control (a,b) and mutant (c,d) animal. The top traces were recorded under baseline conditions and the bottom traces show activity after the iontophoretic application of NMDA. Note the NMDA induced change in the pattern of firing observed in VTA and SNc of control animal (a,b) and lack of response in NR1DATCreERT2 animal (c,d). Firing and bursting rate histograms, generated for the same example DA-like neurons are shown on panels (e,f,g and h). The grey horizontal bars and shaded areas indicate the time at which NMDA was applied. Once again note the clear, NMDA induced, increase in the rate of firing (top) and bursting (bottom) of DA-like neuron in VTA and SNc of control animal (e,f) and lack of any change in NR1DATCreERT2 animal (g,h). Graphs in panels (i,j) show the total and extra burst firing rates of all recorded DA-like neurons in the VTA (i) and SNc (j) of control and mutant mice observed under baseline conditions and after the iontophoretic application of NMDA. Control animals: ● - baseline, ■ - NMDA; Mutant animals: ○ - baseline, □ - NMDA. Horizontal lines with whiskers indicate the mean and SEM of a parameter. Parameter values and statistics are shown in Supplementary Tables S2 and S3. ‘*’, indicates Bonferroni corrected t-test that resulted in p < 0.05, ‘**’ indicates p < 0.01, ‘***’ indicates p < 0.001 and ‘****’ indicates p < 0.0001.
