title: Different physiological properties of spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents in nucleus accumbens shell neurons between adult and juvenile rats.
abstract: Studies have demonstrated the changes of the physiological characteristics of nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons with the postnatal development of rats. In the present study, spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents (sEPSCs) were recorded in the slices of NAc shell (NAcS) of adult and juvenile rats. Our results demonstrate that both the average amplitude of sEPSCs and the average frequency of sEPSCs in the NAcS slices of adult rats decreased significantly than that in juvenile rats. The average half width of sEPSCs in the NAcS slices in adult rats increased significantly than that in juvenile rats. The rise time of sEPSCs, the rise 50 time of sEPSCs and the 10-90 rise time of sEPSCs in the NAcS slices increased significantly in adult rats than that in juvenile rats. The decay time of sEPSCs in the NAcS slices also increased significantly in adult rats than that in juvenile rats. The above results strongly indicate that there are marked changes in the electrophysiological properties of single sEPSC in the NAcS slices of juvenile and adult rats.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Neurobiology and State Key Laboratory of Biomembrane and Membrane Biotechnology, College of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Dong
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Zhuo
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Qing-Yao
authors.initials: QY
authors.lastname: Kong
authors.forename: Jian-Jun
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Long-Chuan
authors.initials: LC
authors.lastname: Yu
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D000818:Animals; D019706:Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology*