Figure 1. Tau ablation reduces sAP firing and E/I ratio of PCs but does not affect their excitability.

sAP firing, AP thresholds, input-output responses, and spontaneous (s) and miniature (m) EPSCs and IPSCs were recorded in PCs in acute slices of somatosensory cortex from 24- to 28-day-old WT and Mapt^−/− mice. See Table S1 for additional measures.

(A) Representative traces of sAPs recorded by cell-attached patch-clamp.

(B) Quantitation of sAP frequencies. The graph on the right shows cumulative probability curves of sAP frequencies binned at 2 Hz.

(C) Representative APs induced by minimal current injection.

(D and E) Quantitations of AP rheobase currents (D) and thresholds (E).

(F) Representative AP firing patterns induced by a 200-pA current injection.

(G) AP frequency in response to increasing current injections (F-I curves).

(H) Representative PSC traces recorded from WT (top) and Mapt^−/− (bottom) cells.

(I–L) Quantitations of sIPSC (I), mIPSC (J), sEPSC (K), and mEPSC (L) frequencies.

(M) Ratios of (sEPSC frequency × amplitude) over (sIPSC frequency × amplitude).

n = 43–48 cells (from 4 mice) per genotype for sAPs; 2–4 cells per slice and 3–4 slices per mouse (B) were analyzed. n = 16–17 cells (from 3 mice) per genotype for APs; 1 cell per slice and 5–6 slices per mouse (D, E, and G) were analyzed. n = 14–17 cells (from 3 mice) per genotype for PSCs; 1 cell per slice and 4–6 slices per mouse (I–M) were analyzed. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01 by unpaired two-tailed Student’s t test (I) or Mann-Whitney test (B and M). In all figures, differences without asterisk(s) were not statistically significant. See Table S4 for all other p values and STAR methods for an explanation of box-and-whisker plots (B, D, E, and I–M). Values in (G) are means ± SEM.