Lau et al 2024 dataset - README

ABBREVIATIONS
MB= midbrain
SNC = Substantia nigra compacta
VTA = Ventral Tegmental Area
OB =  Olfactory bulb
TH = Tyrosine hydroxylase
tdT= dandem dimer Tomato



FILE FORMATS

Confocal microscopy: images .lsm acquired with a Zeiss LSM confocal microscope.
The files can be opened with Fiji/ImageJ and will contain all metadata.

Electrophysiology: traces .smr acquired and analysed with Spike2 (https://ced.co.uk/products/spike2).
If you do not have this software, you can find documentation online to convert this file format
for Python (e.g. spike2py on GitHub) or Clampfit/Igor.



UNIT OF MEASUREMENT

Confocal microscopy: images are 512x512 pixels, which correspond to 303.64 x 303.64 um.
Fiji/ImageJ can access the metadata and will automatically read out the pixel to micrometer scale.

Electrophysiology: For recordings of action potentials made in current clamp, the y-axis represents 10 x the voltage 
at the cell membrane (for example, 1 volt on the y-axis is 100mV at the cell membrane). 
The test pulses were collected in voltage clamp; for these traces, the y-xis, given in volts, 
needs to be converted to current, in amps, according to the gain. The gain was 5 mv/pA ie every 
5mV on the y-axis represents 1 pA at the cell membrane.