More mice, more rats

In the previous post, we saw a case in which the same data curve appears in two studies, one conducted on rats and one conducted on mice. Here is an even more peculiar coincidence, again involving a pair of studies performed by the same group. Again, though these studies were performed in different species, they yielded undistinguishable data.

Consider this 1999 study performed in rats: "Unilateral dopamine denervation blocks corticostriatal LTP." Journal of Neurophysiology, 1999. 82: 3575-3579.


Here is Figure 1B of that study. The legend says that the curve on the left was measured in naive rats, and the the curve on the right was measured in denervated rats. The colored curves were added by hand to overlap the data points.

Now consider a 2000 study by the same group, this one performed in mice: "Dopamine and cAMP-regulated phosphoprotein 32 kDa controls both striatal long-term depression and long-term potentiation, opposing forms of synaptic plasticity", Journal of Neuroscience, 2000. 20: 8443-8451.


Here is Figure 3B of this study. The legend says that the curve on the left was measured in wild-type mice, whereas the curve on the right was measured in knock-out mice. The colored curves were added to this plot. What is truly remarkable is that they are the same as in the rat study.

It is indeed a peculiar coincidence that the naive rats yielded the same curve as the wild-type mice, and the denervated rats yielded the same curve as the knock-out mice.