Extended Data Fig. 8: Biophysical properties of excitatory dPAG neurons and synaptic properties of the dmSC-dPAG excitatory connection.

a, Example trace of current step injections in a VGluT2⁺ dPAG cell (left) and summary current–frequency relationship (right, shaded area is s.e.m.). b, Summary quantification of resting membrane potential (mean = −61.4 ± 2.15), input resistance (mean = 0.55 ± 0.05 GΩ) and membrane time constant (mean = 28.3 ± 3 ms) for VGluT2⁺ dPAG cells (n = 14 cells, n = 7 mice). c, Example current traces for one dPAG VGluT2⁺ cell showing optogenetically evoked EPSCs from the dmSC (left) that are blocked by TTX (middle) and recovered by 4-AP (right), confirming the presence of a monosynaptic connection. d, Summary data for peak dmSC–dPAG EPSC amplitudes and connectivity rate in the presence of TTX and 4-AP. e, Summary data showing that the properties of the dmSC–dPAG connection do not change with number of days after viral transfection of ChR2, and remain weak and unreliable (n = 15 mice, P = 0.78, 0.51 and 0.33 for amplitude, failure rate and connectivity rate, respectively, Kruskal–Wallis test). Plots show mean and s.e.m. f, Average waveforms for sEPSCs and mESPCs (recorded in TTX) in one cell, and respective cumulative histogram for peak amplitudes. g, Peak amplitude of sEPSCs and mEPSCs is not significantly different (n = 4 cells, P = 0.18, 0.79, 0.9 and 0.36 respectively, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test for 100 events in each condition per cell). Box-and-whisker plots show median, IQR and range.