Figure 10

Bursts increase extracellular dopamine. Panel A shows the eda concentration as a function of time when the tonic firing rate is 5 Hz. The eda from the previous action potential is cleared from the extracellular space before the next action potential arrives. Notice that vesicular dopamine and cytosolic dopamine are not noticeably affected on this short time scale. Panel B shows that a short burst of action potentials at 15 Hz raises extracellular dopamine dramatically during the burst. Even a very short term change from tonic firing at 5 Hz to burst firing at 15 Hz produces a large dopamine signal.