AI Article Synopsis
- - Changes in dopamine neuron activity are linked to affective disorders, but the exact role remains disputed.
- - Inactivating NMDA receptors in dopaminergic neurons of adult mice caused symptoms similar to affective disorders, like increased immobility and reduced social interactions.
- - Despite slower learning in certain tasks, mutant mice eventually performed similarly to normal mice, indicating that the NMDA receptor loss specifically affects mood and social behaviors rather than overall learning ability.
Article Abstract
The role of changes in dopamine neuronal activity during the development of symptoms in affective disorders remains controversial. Here, we show that inactivation of NMDA receptors on dopaminergic neurons in adult mice led to the development of affective disorder-like symptoms. The loss of NMDA receptors altered activity and caused complete NMDA-insensitivity in dopamine-like neurons. Mutant mice exhibited increased immobility in the forced swim test and a decrease in social interactions. Mutation also led to reduced saccharin intake, however the preference of sweet taste was not significantly decreased. Additionally, we found that while mutant mice were slower to learn instrumental tasks, they were able to reach the same performance levels, had normal sensitivity to feedback and showed similar motivation to exert effort as control animals. Taken together these results show that inducing the loss of NMDA receptor-dependent activity in dopamine neurons is associated with development of affective disorder-like symptoms.
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Source |
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| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5112557 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep37171 | DOI Listing |
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