Fig. 6

Reduction in silent synapses after the formation of chronic itch. a Representative consecutive traces and scatter plot of evoked EPSCs at -65 and +40 mV holding potentials from one pyramidal neuron in ACC from control (left) and DCP group (right). The amplitude of failed events are assigned to 0 pA for ease of visualization. Scale bars represent 30 pA and 30 ms. b Left, quantification of failure rate of evoked responses for control (n = 12 neurons) and DCP (n = 16 neurons) group at -65 and + 40 mV holding potentials. The failure rate difference between -65 and +40 mV decreased after the formation of chronic itch. ***p < 0.001. Right, failure rate difference of evoked responses between -65 and +40 mV holding potentials is obviously lower from chronic itch rats than controls. **p < 0.01. c The percentage of silent synapses is reduced after chronic itch compared with controls. **p < 0.01. EPSC = excitatory postsynaptic current; ACC = anterior cingulate cortex; Ctrl = control; DCP = diphenylcyclopropenone