Suppression from Afar: Striatal D2 Receptors Temper Inhibition in Cortex Turning down Inhibition from Afar

11 July 2011. Altering dopamine signaling in one region of the brain can have substantial repercussions elsewhere, according to a study published online on July 5, 2011, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The laboratories of Wen-Ju Gao at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Eric Kandel at Columbia University in New York joined forces to examine the synaptic consequences of overexpressing D2 dopamine receptors in the striatum of mice. They turned up a deficit in GABAergic transmission in the prefrontal cortex—a result that links two disparate findings in schizophrenia and suggests that impaired cognition stems from overactive dopamine signaling in the striatum.