Regional Heterogeneity of D2-Receptor Signaling in the Dorsal Striatum and Nucleus Accumbens.

Neuron

Department of Pharmacology, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO 80045, USA; Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA. Electronic address:

Published: May 2018

AI Article Synopsis

  • Dopamine input to the dorsal striatum and nucleus accumbens comes from different midbrain neurons, affecting their function.
  • Research showed that D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens have slower synaptic currents compared to those in the dorsal striatum.
  • Cocaine exposure eliminated the heightened sensitivity of D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens, highlighting how these differences in sensitivity and timing affect dopamine signal encoding in brain circuits.

Article Abstract

Dopamine input to the dorsal and ventral striatum originates from separate populations of midbrain neurons. Despite differences in afferent inputs and behavioral output, little is known about how dopamine release is encoded by dopamine receptors on medium spiny neurons (MSNs) across striatal subregions. Here we examined the activation of D2 receptors following the synaptic release of dopamine in the dorsal striatum (DStr) and nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell. We found that D2 receptor-mediated synaptic currents were slower in the NAc and this difference occurred at the level of D2-receptor signaling. As a result of preferential coupling to Gαo, we also found that D2 receptors in MSNs demonstrated higher sensitivity for dopamine in the NAc. The higher sensitivity in the NAc was eliminated following cocaine exposure. These results identify differences in the sensitivity and timing of D2-receptor signaling across the striatum that influence how nigrostriatal and mesolimbic signals are encoded across these circuits.

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Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6048973PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2018.03.038DOI Listing

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