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[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

[Abstract Title]. - Society for Neuroscience

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Parkinson disease, schizophrenia and drug addiction. We recently showed that this midbrain<br />

system consists of two highly distinct types of DA neurons with different anatomical, molecular<br />

and functional properties (Lammel et al. 2008, Neuron). To further investigate the<br />

electrophysiological characteristics of these distinct “classical” substantia nigra (SN) and<br />

“unconventional” ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neurons, we combined selective retrograde<br />

tracing of two respective projection areas - the dorsal striatum (DS) and the nucleus accumbens<br />

(NAc) core - in 3-month old C57bl6 mice with in-vitro patch-clamp recordings. Using nucleated<br />

outside-out patches of retrogradly identified DA neurons, we studied the biophysical properties<br />

of subthreshold A-type potassium currents. The A-type currents recorded from DA VTA neurons<br />

projecting to NAc core inactivated with significantly slower kinetics (mean time constant of<br />

inactivation; taui=69.3±8.4 ms at -20 mV, n=11) compared to those in nigrostriatal DA neurons<br />

(taui=29.4±1.7 ms, n=17; p

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