Fluctuations in somatosensory responsiveness and baseline firing rates of neurons in the lateral striatum of freely moving rats: effects of intranigral apomorphine

Somatosensory responsiveness and baseline firing rates of 102 striatal neurons were studied in freely moving rats. For individual neurons, mean levels of responsiveness and baseline firing fluctuated unpredictably in direction and magnitude and independently of each other throughout an experiment. F...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience 2004, Vol.125 (4), p.1077-1082
Main Authors: Prokopenko, V.F, Pawlak, A.P, West, M.O
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Apomorphine - administration & dosage
basal ganglia
Biological and medical sciences
Corpus Striatum - drug effects
Corpus Striatum - physiology
corticostriatal
dopamine
Dopamine Agonists - administration & dosage
Electrophysiology
Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory - drug effects
Evoked Potentials, Somatosensory - physiology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Injections, Intraventricular
Male
microinjection
Microinjections
Movement - physiology
Neurons - drug effects
Neurons - physiology
Rats
Rats, Long-Evans
single neuron recording
substantia nigra
Substantia Nigra - drug effects
Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs
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Summary:Somatosensory responsiveness and baseline firing rates of 102 striatal neurons were studied in freely moving rats. For individual neurons, mean levels of responsiveness and baseline firing fluctuated unpredictably in direction and magnitude and independently of each other throughout an experiment. Following microinjections of apomorphine into the substantia nigra, which were used as a means of reducing nigral output activity, the magnitude of fluctuations in striatal somatosensory responsiveness significantly increased, while the magnitude of fluctuations in baseline firing was unaltered. The receptive zones of 54 neurons studied in control experiments remained stable, whereas receptive zones changed in 12 of 25 neurons studied after apomorphine microinjection. Normal nigrostriatal dopamine transmission appears to selectively restrict the magnitude of fluctuations in responsiveness of striatal neurons to corticostriatal synaptic input and may exert additional control over afferent projections from cutaneous receptive zones to these neurons.
ISSN:0306-4522
1873-7544
DOI:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2004.02.037