Synaptic blockers and BMI were kept in frozen aliquots at −20 °C and diluted to the appropriate final concentration immediately before use. Stock solutions of apamin (100 μm) were kept at 4 °C (extensive experience in our laboratory has shown that this is unproblematic when using supramaximal concentrations of the peptide), except for the concentration–response curves, in which case frozen aliquots of the appropriate stock solutions were used. Agatoxin IVA and ω-conotoxin GVIA were aliquoted and kept at −20 °C. Nifedipine was freshly prepared before each experiment; a stock solution was made in

DMSO and was protected from light. The final solution contained 0.1% DMSO. The sources of the compounds were as follows: Fluorouracil in vivo APV, CGP55845, MK801, CNQX, gabazine and mibefradil were obtained from Tocris Bioscience (Bristol, UK). Apamin, 8-OH-DPAT, nifedipine, phenylephrine, TEA, DBHQ (2,5-di(tert-butyl)hydroquinone) and WAY100635 were purchased from Sigma (St Louis, MO, USA), BMI from Fischer Scientific (Alost, Belgium),

ω-conotoxin GVIA from Bachem (Bubendorf, Switzerland) and tamapin from Alamone (Jerusalem, Israel), while 3,5-dichloro-N-[1-(2,2-dimethyl-tetrahydro-pyran-4-ylmethyl)-4-fluoro-piperidin-4-ylmethyl]-benzamide (TTA-P2; a selective blocker of T-type channels; Dreyfus et al., 2010) was generously provided by Merck and Co., Inc. After patch-clamp recordings of presumed serotonergic Apoptosis Compound Library neurons, slices were fixed and used for immunostaining using both streptavidin conjugated to FITC and an anti-TPH antibody to visualize biocytin and TPH, respectively (see ‘Materials and methods’ for details).

Of a total of 18 cells that were stained with biocytin and also exhibited a significant outward current which was blocked by SK blockers (see below), all did also stain positively with the anti-TPH antibody (Fig. 1). These histological controls demonstrate MycoClean Mycoplasma Removal Kit that most of the neurons used in our patch-clamp experiments were indeed serotonergic. A total of 99 neurons were recorded in the whole-cell configuration. These neurons had a very low spontaneous firing rate (n = 27, firing rate < 2 Hz) or were quiescent (n = 62). Membrane potential was −52.9 ± 5.4 mV (n = 99; Fig. 2A). A linear relationship was apparent between the intensity of current injection and voltage deflection at hyperpolarized membrane potentials, with no significant time-dependent sag (Fig. 2A). The input resistance was 490 ± 126 MΩ (mean ± SEM; n = 87) and the membrane time constant (τ) was 58 ± 13 ms (n = 70). These values had a rather low variance and their distribution was Gaussian, suggesting that they were obtained from a homogenous neuronal population. These measurements were obtained in the absence of synaptic blockers, as can be seen from Fig. 2A; however, measurements made on five neurons showed that their input resistance and time constant values were not significantly affected by the presence of the blockers.