Figure 1. Emotional stress prolonged EPSC decay time without changing the current amplitude in stellate cells. A, Mice were exposed to fox urine for 5 min to elicit a fear response. EPSCs were measured at 36°C 15 h after a mouse was exposed to fox urine. Inhibition of EPSCs at −60 mV by IEM-1460 (100 μm), a selective Ca2+-permeable AMPAR blocker, was reduced after fox urine exposure (n = 3 cells from 3 different mice in each group; p < 0.05). B, Example showing the increase in decay time of average sEPSCs after fox urine exposure. C, Median decay time constant of individual sEPSCs increases from 0.57 to 0.71 ms after fox urine exposure (control, 562 synaptic events, n = 7 cells from 7 mice; fox urine treated, 558 events, n = 6 cells from 3 mice; p < 0.00001, Kolmogorov–Smirnov test). D, Average sEPSC amplitude did not change after fox urine exposure (control, n = 7; fox urine treated, n = 6; p > 0.05, unpaired t test). Error bars indicate SEM. *p < 0.05.