Fig. 3.

Effect of increasing the amount of 5-HT on the serotonin signal of control and sertraline-treated rats. Rats were treated with vehicle or sertraline for 4, 10, or 15 d followed by 2 d of washout, as described in Materials and Methods. Several parameters are obtained from the electrochemical signal in response to local application of equal amounts of 5-HT (5.2, 10.4, or 15.6 pmol) into the CA3 region of the hippocampus of these rats. Parameters analyzed here were signal amplitude, T80, the time it takes for the peak amplitude to be reduced by 80%; total time course (t-course), the total time for the signal to return to baseline from the time of application of 5-HT. Each point represents the means ± SEM of an n of five to eight rats. *p < 0.05 comparison of each time point in the treatment groups with the corresponding time in the control group; ANOVA, followed by Newman–Keuls post hoccomparison.