Aberrant GABA-A receptor expression in the dentate gyrus of the epileptic mutant mouse stargazer

Stargazer (stg) mutant mice fail to express stargazin [transmembrane AMPA receptor regulatory protein 2 (TARP2)] and consequently experience absence seizure-like thalamocortical spike-wave discharges that pervade the hippocampal formation via the dentate gyrus (DG). As in other seizure models, the dentate granule cells of stg develop elaborate reentrant axon collaterals and transiently overexpress brain-derived neurotrophic factor. We investigated whether GABAergic parameters were affected by the stg mutation in this brain region. GABAA receptor (GABAR) 4 and 3 subunits were consistently upregulated, GABAR expression appeared to be variably reduced, whereas GABAR 1, 2, and 2 subunits and the GABAR synaptic anchoring protein gephyrin were essentially unaffected. We established that the 42 subunit-containing, flunitrazepam-insensitive subtype of GABARs, not normally a significant GABAR in DG neurons, was strongly upregulated in stg DG, apparently arising at the expense of extrasynaptic 4-containing receptors. This change was associated with a reduction in neurosteroid-sensitive GABAR-mediated tonic current. This switch in GABAR subtypes was not reciprocated in the tottering mouse model of absence epilepsy implicating a unique, intrinsic adaptation of GABAergic networks in stg

Electron and photon energy calibration with the ATLAS detector using LHC Run 1 data

This paper presents the electron and photon energy calibration achieved with the ATLAS detector using about 25 fb$^{-1}$ of LHC proton--proton collision data taken at centre-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 and 8 TeV. The reconstruction of electron and photon energies is optimised using multivariate algorithms. The response of the calorimeter layers is equalised in data and simulation, and the longitudinal profile of the electromagnetic showers is exploited to estimate the passive material in front of the calorimeter and reoptimise the detector simulation. After all corrections, the $Z$ resonance is used to set the absolute energy scale. For electrons from $Z$ decays, the achieved calibration is typically accurate to 0.05% in most of the detector acceptance, rising to 0.2% in regions with large amounts of passive material. The remaining inaccuracy is less than 0.2-1% for electrons with a transverse energy of 10 GeV, and is on average 0.3% for photons. The detector resolution is determined with a relative inaccuracy of less than 10% for electrons and photons up to 60 GeV transverse energy, rising to 40% for transverse energies above 500 GeV.Comment: 39 pages plus author list + cover pages (51 pages total), 42 figures, 8 tables, submitted to EPJC, All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/PERF-2013-05