Methcathinone Increases Visually-evoked Neuronal Activity and Enhances Sensory Processing Efficiency in Mice.
10.1007/s12264-022-00965-z
- Author:
Jun ZHOU
1
;
Wen DENG
1
;
Chen CHEN
1
;
Junya KANG
1
;
Xiaodan YANG
1
;
Zhaojuan DOU
1
;
Jiancheng WU
2
;
Quancong LI
2
;
Man JIANG
3
;
Man LIANG
4
;
Yunyun HAN
5
Author Information
1. Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medicine and Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
2. Department of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China.
3. Department of Physiology, School of Basic Medicine and Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. manjiang@hust.edu.cn.
4. Department of Forensic Medicine, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. liangman@hust.edu.cn.
5. Department of Neurobiology, School of Basic Medicine and Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China. yhan@hust.edu.cn.
- Publication Type:Journal Article
- Keywords:
Ca2+ imaging;
In vivo single-unit recording;
Methcathinone;
Nucleus accumbens;
Synthetic psychoactive substance;
Visual cortex
- MeSH:
Mice;
Animals;
Reproducibility of Results;
Neurons;
Sensation;
Perception
- From:
Neuroscience Bulletin
2023;39(4):602-616
- CountryChina
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
Methcathinone (MCAT) belongs to the designer drugs called synthetic cathinones, which are abused worldwide for recreational purposes. It has strong stimulant effects, including enhanced euphoria, sensation, alertness, and empathy. However, little is known about how MCAT modulates neuronal activity in vivo. Here, we evaluated the effect of MCAT on neuronal activity with a series of functional approaches. C-Fos immunostaining showed that MCAT increased the number of activated neurons by 6-fold, especially in sensory and motor cortices, striatum, and midbrain motor nuclei. In vivo single-unit recording and two-photon Ca2+ imaging revealed that a large proportion of neurons increased spiking activity upon MCAT administration. Notably, MCAT induced a strong de-correlation of population activity and increased trial-to-trial reliability, specifically during a natural movie stimulus. It improved the information-processing efficiency by enhancing the single-neuron coding capacity, suggesting a cortical network mechanism of the enhanced perception produced by psychoactive stimulants.
