Fig. 5. Vomeronasal (VN) neurons are chemically activated by multiple natural compounds. (A) Whole-cell, voltage-clamp recording from a female VN neuron in response to stimulating the cell (black bar) with a 1:100 dilution of female musk, a 1:100 dilution of male musk, a 1:10 dilution of female urine, a 1:10 dilution of male urine and turtle Ringer alone. Holding potential, Vh, was –60 mV for all traces. Chemical stimulation lasted 700 ms. (B) Whole-cell, voltage-clamp recording from a male VN neuron. This neuron displays the typical outward current observed in both genders in response to urine. Cat, catfish extract. (C) Histogram of the percentage of 90 neurons displaying chemically evoked currents in response to at least one of five natural stimuli tested per neuron as in A or B. The filled area of the column on the far right shows the percentage of neurons responding to only one of the five natural chemicals, and the hatched area of the column shows the percentage of neurons responding to two or more of the five test chemicals. Sample sizes are given on the figure.
