Fig. 2
From: Midbrain circuit regulation of individual alcohol drinking behaviors in mice
Low alcohol drinking mice have higher VTA dopamine neuron activity in vivo. a Timeline for experiments and schematic of single-unit recordings. b Representative in vivo VTA dopamine (DA) neuron firing traces for EtOH naive, low alcohol drinking, and high alcohol drinking mice, where dashed boxes show representative bursts. c VTA DA neuron firing rate in vivo (Kruskal–Wallis: K(3) = 12.74, P < 0.01; post hoc Dunn’s multiple comparison test, **P < 0.01. n = 33 cells from 7 mice; n = 22 cells from 7 mice; n = 48 cells from 16 mice). d VTA DA neuron frequency of in vivo bursting (Kruskal–Wallis: K(3) = 23.88, P < 0.0001; post hoc Dunn’s multiple comparison test, ***P < 0.001. n = 23 cells from 7 mice; n = 22 cells from 7 mice; n = 38 cells from 15 mice). e VTA DA neuron percentage of spikes within a burst in vivo (Kruskal–Wallis: K(3) = 21.02, P < 0.0001; post hoc Dunn’s multiple comparison test, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001. n = 23 cells from 7 mice; n = 22 cells from 7 mice; n = 38 cells from 15 mice). f Average length of burst in VTA DA neurons in vivo (Kruskal–Wallis: K(3) = 16.34, P < 0.001; post hoc Dunn’s multiple comparison test, ***P < 0.001, **P < 0.01. n = 23 cells from 7 mice; n = 22 cells from 7 mice; n = 38 cells from 15 mice). g Correlation between average VTA DA neuron in vivo firing rate and EtOH preference from individual alcohol drinking mice (r2 = 0.2938, P < 0.01. n = 23 mice). h Correlation between average VTA DA neuron in vivo frequency of bursting and EtOH preference from individual alcohol drinking mice (r2 = 0.5750, P < 0.01. n = 22 mice). Data represented as mean + S.E.M.
