Journal: Frontiers in neural circuits

Article Title: Decoding brain state transitions in the pedunculopontine nucleus: cooperative phasic and tonic mechanisms.

doi: 10.3389/fncir.2015.00068

Figure Lengend Snippet: FIGURE 4 | The neurochemical properties of PPN neurons define their dynamics of activation. (A) Neurons that were recorded and labeled in vivo (neurobiotin), and subsequently identified as immunopositive for choline acetyltransferase (ChAT), responded transiently to the sensory stimulation (representative trace). (B) In contrast, neurons that were immunonegative for ChAT showed prolonged responses to the same stimulation (representative trace). (C) Repeated stimulation trials show that cholinergic neurons rapidly return to a lower firing rate and respond in similar magnitude to successive stimulations. (D) Non-cholinergic neurons are able to maintain a steady and elevated firing rate after one trial, and further increasing their firing rate with successive stimulations. (E) Normalized firing rate of cholinergic neurons show a phasic dynamic of activation (n = 4). (F) Normalized firing rate of non-cholinergic neurons that were excited by the stimulation show a tonic dynamic of activation (n = 11). (G) Normalized firing rate of non-cholinergic neurons that were inhibited by the stimulation (n = 10).

Article Snippet: In order to identify the neurochemical profile and location of juxtacellularly-labeled neurons, neurobiotin was revealed by incubation with CY3-conjugated streptavidin (1:1000; Jackson ImmunoResearch Laboratories, Inc., USA) in PBS containing 0.3% v/v Triton X-100.

Techniques: Activation Assay, Labeling, In Vivo