Reduced chaos of interspike interval of midbrain dopaminergic neurons in aged rats

In this study, the nonlinear prediction method combined with Gaussian- scaled surrogate data was used to quantify, as a first goal, the chaotic behavior of the interspike interval of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic neurons, extracellularly recorded in vivo, in anesthetized rats. The second goal was to determine the differences in chaotic content as a function of age. Comparisons were made among three different groups of rats: young (two to four weeks of age), adult (three to four months of age) and aged (16-19 months of age). It has been found that the degree of complexity of action potential trains is reduced with aging. The chaotic content of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons within each group and the decrease of chaos with aging cannot be explained in terms of standard characteristics of neuronal activity (firing rate, bursting activity). These data can be rationalized in the light of recent findings on the role of deterministic chaos in the functional behavior of complex biological systems, and suggests that nonlinear analysis may provide an additional method in characterizing neuronal activity.