Figure 6.

Morphology of layer IV cortical neurons in RIM-DKO^Sert mice. a, b, Camera lucida drawings of Golgi-Cox-stained spiny stellate neurons in the barrel cortex. Typical layer IV neurons from control (a) and RIM-DKO^Sert (b) are illustrated. (a′, b′) to measure dendritic orientation, lines were drawn from the tip of each dendrite to the center of the cell soma; and the number of lines per quadrant was taken as an index of dendritic symmetry. c, d, The pie charts present the percentage of assymetric/symetric profiles for control (c) and RIM-DKO^Sert (d) mice. e, Sholl analysis: the histograms represent the mean number (+SEM) of dendrites crossing concentric rings drawn at 10 µm intervals from the cell soma. f, Histogram depicting the mean + SEM of first, second, third, and fourth order dendritic branches of spiny stellate neurons in control and DKO^Sert mice. g, h, micrographs of Golgi stained second and third order dendrites. Spines appear to be more numerous in the RIM-DKO^Sert neurons (h), than in controls (g). i, Histogram of the mean + SEM spine counts on 20-µm-long sections of second and third order dendrites of neurons from RIM-DKO^Sert and control brains. **p < 0.05. Scale bar, 20 µm.