As mentioned previously, Carta [9] investigated the effect of ethanol on inhibition of cerebellar granule cells. These authors found that 35 and 50mM ethanol increases sIPSC frequency without effecting IPSC amplitude or decay. This ethanol concentration also increased the tonic current recorded from these cells, inducing an inward current shift. These ethanol-induced increases in GABAergic transmission are occluded by concurrent application of TTX. At 50 mM, ethanol also increases the spontaneous firing frequency of Golgi cells (measured using cell-attached recordings). Hanchar and colleagues [10] found that a medium ethanol concentration (30mM) significantly enhanced tonic GABA currents in cerebellar granule cells. This enhancement was potentiated in granule cells expressing mutant extrasynaptic GABAA receptors, as was ethanol-induced enhancement of sIPSC frequency; no ethanol-induced changes in sIPSC amplitude or decay time were observed. However, a recent attempt to replicate the results of this study was not successful [11]. Botta et al., [11] found that although a moderately high concentration of ethanol (25mM) increased the amplitude of tonic currents reported in cerebellar granule cells, this effect did not significantly differ in recordings from neurons
