Fig. 6

Characterization of PV⁺ interneurons in PFC and ACC of CrT^+/y (WT) and CrT^−/y (KO) mice. a-d Electrophysiological characterization of PV⁺ interneurons obtained from CrT^+/y and CrT^−/y animals, carrying the Cre-recombinase in PV⁺ interneurons (PV::CrT^+/y, n = 5, and PV::CrT^−/y, n = 8), injected with the AAV9 pCAG-FLEX-EGFP-WPRE vector; dots represent individual cells. a Current–voltage relationships showing a decrease in peak Na⁺ (left) and steady-state K⁺ (right) current densities in PV::CrT^−/y (KO) neurons with respect to controls (two-way RM ANOVA followed by Fisher’s LSD test, n = 35 cells for PV::CrT^+/y and 45 for PV::CrT^−/y). b Representative traces (left) and quantification (right), showing a decrease in firing frequency in PV::CrT^−/y neurons (Mann–Whitney test, p < 0.05, n = 33 cells for PV::CrT^+/y and 43 for PV::CrT^−/y). c Frequency vs. current plot showing that PV::CrT^−/y neurons persistently fire at lower frequency across a broad range of injected currents compared to controls (two-way RM ANOVA followed by Fisher’s LSD test, n = 33 cells for PV::CrT^+/y and 36 for PV::CrT^−/y). d Representative trace showing the typical profile of action potentials in the two groups (left) and quantification of action potential amplitude (left graph), half-width (central graph) and fAHP (right graph), indicating an alteration of all three parameters in CrT^−/y neurons (Mann–Whitney test, p < 0.05 for peak amplitude and fAHP, p < 0.0001 for half-width, n = 33 cells for PV::CrT^+/y and 43 for PV::CrT^−/y). e Representative images (left) and quantification of PV⁺ cells (center) and puncta density (right) in the PFC and ACC of CrT^+/y (n = 6) and CrT^−/y animals (n = 6), showing a global reduction in PV⁺ puncta and a decrease in PV⁺ cells restricted to the ACC (t-test, p < 0.05 for all comparisons). Dots represent individual animals. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001. Data are expressed as mean ± SEM