Figure 4.

Effects of alphaxalone on spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents (sIPSCs) in the subiculum of postnatal Days 7–9 rat pups. (a) Original traces from a representative subicular neurone in baseline conditions (black) and after addition of alphaxalone 3 μM (Alpx; grey trace). The lower traces show single sIPSC events at an expanded scale. Note the change in decay time after Alpx application. (b) The frequency of sIPSC events was significantly decreased after the application of Alpx 1 μM (paired t-test: t₈=2.37; ∗P=0.045; n=9 neurones, four rats) or 3 μM (t₁₀=2.91; ∗P=0.016; n=11 neurones, six rats). The number of neurones is shown at the bottom of each bar graph. (c) Cumulative probability plots revealed longer sIPSC inter-event intervals in neurones treated with Alpx 3 μM (1329 events) compared with baseline (1812 events). (d) The decay time of sIPSCs was significantly prolonged after application of Alpx 1 μM (t₈=2.90; ∗P=0.020) or 3 μM (t₁₀=2.27; ∗P=0.046). (e) Cumulative probability plots show prolonged sIPSC decay times after application of Alpx 3 μM (929 events) compared with baseline (1493 events). Results are expressed as mean (standard error of the mean).