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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2010 Sep 22;34(12):2137–2146. doi: 10.1111/j.1530-0277.2010.01310.x

Figure 3. Comparison between continuous HT7 and Tail electrical stimulation on acute ethanol inhibition of VTA GABA neuron firing rate.

Figure 3

(A) This ratemeter record shows a representative VTA GABA neuron with a baseline firing rate of approximately 19 Hz during continuous HT7 electrical stimulation. Intraperitoneal administration of 1.0 g/kg ethanol produced a prolonged enhancement of this neuron’s activity during HT7 stimulation. (B) This ratemeter shows the firing rate of a VTA GABA neuron in a separate experiment with a baseline firing rate of 60 Hz during continuous tail stimulation. Intraperitoneal administration of 1.0 g/kg ethanol produced its typical inhibition of firing rate (Gallegos et al., 1999; Ludlow et al., 2009; Steffensen et al., 2009; Stobbs et al., 2004). (C) This graph summarizes the effects of HT7 vs. tail stimulation on ethanol effects on VTA GABA neuron firing rate. There was an increase in firing rate produced by ethanol during continuous HT7 stimulation (n = 7). Ethanol produced its typical inhibition during continous tail stimulation (n = 8). There was a significant difference in ethanol effects between HT7 vs. tail electroacupuncture (p = 0.002). (D) There was a significant difference between naloxone vs. saline on HT7 block of ethanol inhibition of VTA GABA neuron firing rate (p = 0.001). # represents p = 0.0008 between naloxone vs. saline effects.