Figure 3.

Comparison of functional properties between transfected and nontransfected excitatory pyramidal neurons. Throughout this figure, red and green traces depict data from RFP⁺ and RFP⁻ hippocampal pyramidal neurons, respectively, in mice after electroporation of pCAG-RFP as described in Materials and Methods. Black traces depict data from hippocampal pyramidal neurons from mice that had undergone the surgical procedure but without electroporation pulses. A, Passive membrane responses to small subthreshold hyperpolarizing and depolarizing current injections (A1) from which the input resistances (A2) and membrane time constants (A3) were calculated. B, Suprathreshold depolarizing current injections (B1) were used to elicit action potential discharge from which the number of spikes (B2; elicited with the range of current injections) and accommodation ratio (B3; at the 320 pA injection) were calculated. C, Sample traces and ensemble average of mEPSCs from which amplitude, frequency, and decay values were calculated. See supplemental Table 1 (available at www.jneurosci.org as supplemental material) for a summary of the comparison of all parameters measured.