Adolescent alcohol exposure, pain, and synaptic function at BLA inputs onto prelimbic neurons

This dataset covers mechanical and thermal sensitivity in PV-Cre rats (RRID:RRRC_00773) beginning in adolescence and continuing into adulthood. The rats were tested weekly for eight weeks. After the first test, half the rats began adolescent intermittent ethanol vapor exposure, which continued for 4 weeks. Rats then underwent surgery to express channelrhodopsin in the BLA, and a viral cre-depedent mCherry tag in the prelimbic cortex. Retrobeads were injected in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray. This allowed for slice electrophysiology recordings from prelimbic parvalbumin interneurons and prelimbic pyramidal neurons projecting to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray. After recovering from the surgery, rats underwent an inflammatory pain challenge using carrageenan injected into the hindpaw. After assessing the effects of alcohol exposure in conjuction with the pain challenge on mechanical and thermal sensitivity slice electrophysiology recordings were made from neurons in the prelimbic cortex. Parameters of interest were intrinstic excitability and BLA-driven excitatory/inhibitory balance, AMPA/NMDA ratio, and aEPSCs at both parvalbumin interneurons and pyramidal neurons projecting from the prelimbic cortex to the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray.