Fig. 1

Effect of optogenetic manipulation of BLA inputs into the prelimbic mPFC of female neuropathic mice. (a) Mechanical paw withdrawal threshold and (b) thermal paw withdrawal latency in the ipsilateral hindpaws before nerve injury (baseline), and after SNI with (light ON) and without (light OFF) activation of Arch3.0 expressed in the BLA to prelimbic mPFC projection. Data were analyzed with Graph Pad Instat 3.0 and Graphpad Prism 6.0 and are presented as mean ± SEM with two way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Tukey post hoc corrections. Statistical significance was accepted at the level of p < 0.05.Numbers shown in the bars reflect numbers of mice. (c) Current clamp recordings from putative large triangular layer 5 pyramidal cells in mPFC slices from sham (17 cells from 4 animals) and SNI (18 cells from 3 animals) mice. Action potential frequencies are shown in response to different levels of depolarizing current injections. The data sets are not statistically different from each other. Membrane potentials were held at − 70 mV by injecting a small bias current (Resting membrane potentials are similar in Sham: − 68.56+/− 0.96 mV and SNI: 69.05+/− 0.80 mV; p = 0.6981, unpaired t-test). To assess general cell excitability of pyramidal cells, no synaptic blockers were added in perfusion solutions (For detailed methods, see Ref [6])