At the cellular level, nociceptin acts at NOR to augment K+ conductances in amygdalar (Meis and Pape 1998, 2001), hippocampal (Amano et al. 2000; Ikeda et al. 1997; Madamba et al. 1999; Tallent et al. 2001; Yu and Xie 1998) and thalamic neurons (Meis 2003; Meis et al. 2002), thus depressing cell excitability. Nociceptin has also been shown to decrease Ca2+ currents (Abdulla and Smith 1997; Calo et al. 2000; Connor et al. 1999; Henderson and McKnight 1997; Larsson et al. 2000) and reduce the amplitude of both non-NMDA receptor-mediated excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) and IPSCs in rat lateral amygdala (Meis et al. 2002).
