Dopamine Depletion and Terazosin Effects on Interval Timing

For experiments with VTA dopamine depletion and chronic terazosin administration, we analyzed effects of dopamine depletion and terazosin using two-sided non-parametric Wilcoxon tests. Four-to-five sessions of interval timing behavior were collected and analyzed per mouse, both before surgery and approximately 16 days post-surgery. Post-surgery switch time coefficients of variability (CV) and mean switch times were normalized to each mouse’s pre-surgical baseline to account for animal-specific variability in timing behavior. For acute pharmacological administration of terazosin and tamsulosin, each drug treatment was compared to injections of saline one day prior using two-sided non-parametric Wilcoxon tests. All data was analyzed with custom routines written in MATLAB and R, and all statistics was reviewed by the Biomedical Epidemiology Research and Design core in the Institute for Clinical and Translational Sciences at the University of Iowa.