Fast-scan cyclic voltammetry has been used in a variety of applications and has been shown to be especially useful to monitor chemical fluctuations of neurotransmitters such as dopamine within the mammalian brain. A major limitation of this procedure, however, is the large amplitude of the background current relative to the currents for the solution species of interest. Furthermore, the background tends to drift, and this drift limits the use of digital background subtraction techniques to intervals less than 90 s before distortion of dopamine signals occurs. To minimize the impact of the background, a procedure termed analog background subtraction is reported here. The background is recorded, and its inverse is played back to the current transducer during data acquisition so that it cancels the background in subsequent scans. Background drift still occurs and is recorded, but its magnitude is small compared to the original background. This approach has two advantages. First it allows the use of higher gains in the current transducer, minimizing quantization noise. Second, because the background amplitude is greatly reduced, principal component regression could be used to separate the contributions from drift, dopamine, and pH when appropriate calibrations were performed. We demonstrate the use of this approach with several applications. First, transient dopamine fluctuations were monitored for 15 min in a flowing injection apparatus. Second, evoked release of dopamine was monitored for a similar period in the brain of an anesthetized rat. Third, dopamine was monitored in the brain of freely moving rats over a 30 min interval. By analyzing the fluctuations in each resolved component, we were able to show that cocaine causes significant fluctuations in dopamine concentration in the brain while those for the background and pH remain unchanged from their predrug value.

An amperometric fluorinated xerogel-derived nitric oxide (NO) microelectrode is described. A range of fluorine-modified xerogel polymers were synthesized via the co-hydrolysis and condensation of alkylalkoxy- and fluoroalkoxysilanes. Such polymers were evaluated as NO sensor membranes to identify the optimum composition for maximizing NO permeability while providing sufficient selectivity for NO in the presence of common interfering species. By taking advantage of both the versatility of sol–gel chemistry and the “poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE)-like” high NO permselective properties of the xerogels, the performance of the fluorinated xerogel-derived sensors was excellent, surpassing all miniaturized NO sensors reported to date. In contrast to previous electrochemical NO sensor designs, xerogel-based NO microsensors were fabricated using a simple, reliable dip-coating procedure. An optimal permselective membrane was achieved by synthesizing xerogels of methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMOS) and 20% (heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)trimethoxysilane (17FTMS, balance MTMOS) under acid-catalyzed conditions. The resulting NO microelectrode had a conical tip of ~20 μm in diameter and ~55 mm in length, and exhibited sensitivities of 7.91 pA·nM−1 from 0.2 to 3.0 nM (R2 = 0.9947) and 7.60 nA·mM−1 from 0.5 to 4.0 μM (R2 = 0.9999), detection limit of 83 pM (S/N = 3), response time (t95%) of <3 sec, and selectivity (logKNO,jamp) of −5.74, <−6, <−6, <−6, <−6, −5.84, and −1.33 for j = nitrite, ascorbic acid, uric acid, acetaminophen, dopamine, ammonia/ammonium, and carbon monoxide. In addition, the sensor proved functional up to 20 d, maintaining ≥90% of the sensor's initial sensitivity without serious deterioration in selectivity.

Electrophysiological studies have demonstrated that dopaminergic neurons burst fire during certain aspects of rewardrelated behavior; however, the correlation between dopamine release and cell firing is unclear. When complex stimulation patterns that mimic intracranial self-stimulation were employed, dopamine release was shown to exhibit facilitated as well as depressive components (Montague et al. 2004). Understanding the biological mechanisms underlying these variations in dopamine release is necessary to unravel the correlation between unit activity and neurotransmitter release. The dopamine autoreceptor provides negative feedback to dopamine release, inhibiting release on the time scale of a few seconds. Therefore, we investigated this D 2 receptor to see whether it is one of the biological mechanisms responsible for the history-dependent modulation of dopamine release.Striatal dopamine release in anesthetized rats was evoked with stimulus trains that were designed to promote the variability of dopamine release. Consistent with the well established D 2 -mediated autoinhibition, the short-term depressive component of dopamine release was blocked by raclopride, a D 2 antagonist, and enhanced by quinpirole, a D 2 -receptor agonist. Surprisingly, these same drugs exerted a similar effect on the short-term facilitated component: a decrease with raclopride and an increase with quinpirole. These data demonstrate that the commanding control exerted by dopamine autoreceptors over short-term neuroadaptation of dopamine release involves both inhibitory and paradoxically, facilitatory components.

Summary of recent advances-Microelectrodes have emerged as an important tool used by scientists to study biological changes in the brain and in single cells. This review briefly summarizes the ways in which microelectrodes as chemical sensors have furthered the field of neurobiology by reporting on changes that occur on the sub-second time scale. Microelectrodes have been used in a variety of fields including their use by electrophysiologists to characterize neuronal action potentials and development of neural prosthetics. Here we restrict our review to microelectrodes that have been used as chemical sensors. They have played a major role in many important neurobiological findings.

The ventral tegmental area (VTA), the locus of mesolimbic dopamine cell bodies, contains dopamine. Experiments in brain slices have demonstrated that VTA dopamine can be released by local electrical stimulation. Measurements with both push-pull cannula and microdialysis in intact animals have also obtained evidence for releasable dopamine. Here we demonstrate that dopamine release in the VTA can be evoked by remote stimulations of the medial forebrain bundle (MFB) in the anesthetized rat. In initial experiments, the MFB was electrically stimulated while a carbon-fiber electrode was lowered to the VTA, with recording by fast-scan cyclic voltammetry. While release was not observed with the carbon fiber 4 to 6 mm below dura, a voltammetric response was observed a t 6-8 mm below dura, but the voltammogram was poorly defined. At lower depths, in the VTA, dopamine release was evoked. Immunohistochemistry experiments with antibodies for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) confirmed that dopamine processes were primarily found below 8 mm. Similarly, tissue content determined by liquid chromatography revealed serotonin but not dopamine dorsal to 8 mm with both dopamine and serotonin at lower depths. Evaluation of the VTA signal by pharmacological means showed that it increased with inhibitors of dopamine uptake, but release was not altered by D2 agents. Dopamine release in the VTA was frequency dependent and could be exhausted by stimulations longer than 5 s. Thus, VTA dopamine release can be evoked in vivo by remote stimulations and it resembles release in terminal regions, possessing a similar uptake mechanism and a finite releasable storage pool.