Figure 1.

PVT neurons express diurnal changes. A schematic illustrating the differences in intrinsic electrical properties of PVT neurons recorded in slices from different ZT periods. In night period slices, neurons have a more depolarized resting membrane potential (RMP), lower resting membrane conductance, in part owing to lower overall K⁺ currents (I_K), and larger amplitude T-type Ca²⁺ (I_T) and hyperpolarization-activated cation (I_H) currents. These changes result in increased spontaneous tonic and burst firing, and enhanced recurrent activity subsequent to generation of a low-threshold spike (LTS). For details, see Kolaj et al. (2012).