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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Jul 8.
Published in final edited form as: Neuron. 2010 Jul 29;67(2):294–307. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.06.017

Figure 1. Thalamic stimulation generated a ‘burst-pause’ firing pattern in cholinergic interneurons.

Figure 1

(A) Composite diagram of a sagittal slice showing cortex (Ctx), striatum (CPu), lateral globus pallidus (LGP), internal capsule (i.c.). Shaded area indicates the region where EPSCs can be reliably evoked by cortical stimulation in the striatum. Insert: Experimental configuration. (B, C) Sample traces of cell-attached recordings of 10 consecutive responses from a cholinergic interneuron in response to a train (50 Hz, 10 pulses) of thalamic stimulation and cortical stimulation (Top). PSTHs and rasters of an autonomously firing cholinergic interneuron in response to thalamic and cortical stimulation (Bottom). A train of thalamic stimulation produced a ‘burst-pause’ firing pattern in the cholinergic interneuron. A train of cortical stimulation (arrow) produced a slight increase in firing rate. (D) Averaged population responses of cholinergic interneurons showing that trains of thalamic stimulation generate a ‘pause’ (left). In the same set of neurons, averaged population responses of cholinergic interneurons showing increased firing rate following cortical stimulation (right), but no pause. Rasters and histograms aligned to onset of stimulation train. (E) Example of an autocorrelogram of autonomous interneuron spiking, showing periodic activity. The autocorrelogram was aligned with PSTH to compare the mean duration of the pause and the mean ISI during autonomous spiking. (F) The action potential number generated during the stimulation train was plotted against the ratio of the first ISI after stimulation divided by the average ISI before stimulation. Thalamic stimulation (blue dots) produced more action potential during the stimulation and a longer pause compared to cortical stimulation (red circles). (G) In the same set of neurons, the average number of action potential evoked was plotted against the ratio of the first ISI after stimulation divided by the average ISI before stimulation. Thalamic 50 Hz stimulation generated 3-4 action potentials on average (3.73±1.07 action potential counts) The ratio between the first ISI and the average ISI was greater than one (First ISI/Ave ISI =2.85±1.27). In contrast, cortical stimulation produced less than 2 action potentials during the stimulation (1.42±0.56 action potential counts; P<0.05 compared to thalamic stimulation; Mann-Whitney) and the ratio of first ISI and the average ISI of the same neuron was one (First ISI/Ave ISI =1.04±0.32, P<0.05 compared to thalamic stimulation; Mann-Whitney). Experiments were performed at 32-35°C.