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Article: Dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area fire faster in adolescent rats than in adults.

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McCutcheon JE; Conrad KL; Carr SB; Ford KA; McGehee DS; Marinelli M
J. Neurophysiol., 2012


Table 1.

Electrophysiological properties of VTA dopamine neurons recorded under chloral hydrate anesthesia in adolescent and adult rats

AdolescentAdultP Value
Overall activity
    Firing rate, Hz4.89 ± 0.26 (54)3.43 ± 0.25 (38)<0.001
    Nonbursting firing rate, Hz4.73 ± 0.24 (54)3.66 ± 0.24 (38)0.003
    CV of firing rate0.62 ± 0.05 (54)0.79 ± 0.06 (38)0.032*
Amount of bursting
    Spikes in burst, %22.72 ± 3.51 (54)27.62 ± 4.24 (38)0.375
    Time spent bursting, %7.44 ± 1.36 (54)5.10 ± 1.30 (38)0.232
    Burst event frequency, Hz0.34 ± 0.05 (54)0.36 ± 0.06 (38)0.826
    Interburst interval, s14.54 ± 4.15 (51)6.65 ± 1.48 (32)0.136
Characteristics of bursts
    No. of spikes per burst3.25 ± 0.19 (51)2.70 ± 0.11 (34)0.031*
    Burst duration, ms179.86 ± 19.31 (51)113.83 ± 10.75 (34)0.011*
    Intraburst frequency, Hz15.79 ± 0.67 (51)18.94 ± 1.18 (34)0.015*
    Burst ISI, ms71.79 ± 2.19 (51)61.30 ± 2.62 (34)0.003
    ISI of first two spikes, ms61.01 ± 1.59 (51)54.40 ± 1.86 (34)0.009*
    Postburst interval, ms390.49 ± 32.10 (51)606.67 ± 66.68 (34)0.002
  • Values are means ± SE with n (no. of cells) in parentheses. P values after 2-tailed Student's t-test are given for adolescent vs. adult rats for each parameter (*P ≤ 0.05; †P ≤ 0.01; ‡P ≤ 0.001). CV, coefficient of variation; ISI, interspike interval; VTA, ventral tegmental area.


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