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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2013 Nov 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Neurosci. 2013 Mar 31;16(5):632–638. doi: 10.1038/nn.3369

Figure 2. Potentiation of glutamatergic inputs on D1-MSNs after cocaine self-administration.

Figure 2

(a) Sagittal section of Drd1-GFP mouse brain showing green fluorescent in dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens core (NAc) and shell subregions with projections to subtantia nigra reticulate (SNr) overlaid on outline from mouse brain atlas. LV, lateral ventricle. Scale bar = 1 mm. (b) Fluorescently labeled soma of D1-MSN in NAc. Scale bar = 20 μm. (c,d) Traces of AMPAR and NMDAR mediate EPSCs from (c) D1-MSN in sham (black) and cocaine (green) and (d) D2-MSN in sham and cocaine (red) animals. Scale bars: 25 pA and 20 ms. (e) AMPA/NMDA ratios obtained in D1-MSNs (sham = 27 cells/15 mice, cocaine = 46 cells/23 mice) and D2-MSN (sham= 23 cells/15 mice, cocaine= 29 cells/18 mice). (f) Dendrite segment and dendritic spine from a D1-MSN acquired using 2-photon laser-scanning microscope. Star indicates site of uncaging laser pulse. Scale bar = 0.5 μm (g, h) Representative traces of AMPA mediated uEPSCs (g) and NMDAR mediated uEPSCs (h) recorded from D1-MSNs in NAc core from sham (black) and cocaine (green) mice. (i) Peak amplitude of AMPA and NMDAR mediated uEPSC in D1-MSNs of sham (black, AMPA= 22 spines/9 cells, NMDA= 14 spines/6 cells) and cocaine (green, AMPA= 23 spines/13 cells, NMDA=20 spines/5 cells) animals. (j) Amplitude distribution of all AMPA uEPSCs recorded in D1-MSNs from sham (black) and cocaine (green) mice. y-axis represents number of spines. * p < 0.05, Mann Whitney (e, i), unpaired t-test (i). Data are mean ± SEM.