Figure 4

Transient application of gold nanoparticles increases hippocampal neuronal activity. (A) Firing rate average from extracellularly recorded CA3 hippocampal neurons before and after gold nanoparticle (Au NP) application. The activity was averaged every 5 min. Bars are S.E.M. Firing rates were normalized to values before application. (B) Absolute firing rate of all the experiments in (A) before and after nanoparticle application. Firing rate after application was averaged from t = 20 to t = 50 min. (C) Percentage change of firing rate application from B. Error bars are for the S.E.M. (D-F) Identical analysis as in A-C when the application pipette only contained artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) and no nanoparticles.