Locus coeruleus noradrenergic neurons have diverse activity patterns across species and biological context.

Locus coeruleus noradrenergic neurons show firing-rate and activity-pattern diversity across vertebrate species, with rates differing by sex, age, and preparation type.

• Why it matters: The field lacks a cross-species assessment of whether spontaneous LC firing is homogeneous, despite LC’s conserved role in cognition and cardiorespiratory, metabolic, and immune functions.
• What they did: We pooled cross-species data from 20 laboratories and compared spontaneous LC firing rates and patterns across in vitro and in vivo preparations, testing effects of species, sex, and age.
• The result: Firing rates differ across species and are modulated by sex, age, and preparation type; patterns span a low-dimensional manifold with subregions enriched for specific biological factors and neurodegenerative disease models.

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