Raphe neurons: firing rate correlates with size of drug response.
B L Jacobs, J Heym, K Rasmussen
European journal of pharmacology June 3, 1983 DOI: 10.1016/0014-2999(83)90249-2 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractIn unanesthetized and unrestrained cats, serotonergic neurons in several raphe nuclei showed a strong negative correlation between their spontaneous firing rate during waking and their response to systemic injections of the serotonin agonists 5-MeODMT or LSD. The authors propose that both the baseline activity of these neurons and the size of their response to serotonin-like drugs can be explained by the density of autoreceptors on each neuron.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Observational study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus, nucleus centralis superior, and nucleus raphe pallidus of unanesthetized and unrestrained cats |
| Interventions | 5-MeODMT LSD |
| Citations | 25 |
| Key finding | Spontaneous discharge rate during waking negatively correlates with neural response to 5-MeODMT or LSD in serotonergic neurons, consistent with an autoreceptor-density hypothesis. |
Abstract
Significant negative correlations were obtained between the spontaneous discharge rate during waking and the neural response to systemic injections of either 5-MeODMT or LSD for serotonergic neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus, nucleus centralis superior, and nucleus raphe pallidus of unanesthetized and unrestrained cats. These data are discussed in terms of an hypothesis which accounts for both the rate of spontaneous activity of serotonergic neurons and the magnitude of their response to serotonin agonist drugs in terms of autoreceptor density on individual neurons.