Combining rabies-virus tracing, optical clearing (CLARITY), and whole-brain light-sheet imaging, we mapped the monosynaptic inputs to midbrain dopamine neurons projecting to different targets (different parts of the striatum, cortex, amygdala, etc) in mice. We found that most populations of dopamine neurons receive a similar set of inputs rather than forming strong reciprocal connections with t...

Corticostriatal connections play a central role in developing appropriate goal-directed behaviors, including the motivation and cognition to develop appropriate actions to obtain a specific outcome. The cortex projects to the striatum topographically. Thus, different regions of the striatum have been associated with these different functions: the ventral striatum with reward; the caudate nucleu...

Recent animal experiments suggest that transplanted neurons become integrated with the host brain. Neuroanatomical studies have shown that transplanted dopaminergic neurons can form synaptic connections on target cells in the host striatum. Other studies also have shown that grafted neurons not only innervate the host striatum but also receive afferent inputs from neurons of the host. However, ...

Brain reward circuitry, including ventral striatum and orbitofrontal cortex, has been independently implicated in preferences for fair and cooperative outcomes as well as learning of reputations. Using functional MRI (fMRI) and a "trust game" task involving iterative exchanges with fictive partners who acquire different reputations for reciprocity, we measured brain responses in 36 healthy adul...

Sir, In their letter concerning our recent report, Drs Zeighami and Moustafa discuss several previous studies investigating the functions of the ventral and dorsal striatum and the dissociation between action-value and stimulus-value learning. They note that in light of much of this previous work, our findings regarding Patient XG—who suffered bilateral lesions to dorsal striatum and is impaire...

Previous research has posited striatal involvement in implicit learning. However, imaging studies have not directly compared learners with non-learners. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging with 15 study participants, we used an implicit learning task previously associated with striatal recruitment. Dorsal and ventral striatum activation was observed in the eight participants who demonst...

Abstract We recently found a significant association between exonic copy-number variations in the Rho GTPase activating protein 10 ( Arhgap10 ) gene and schizophrenia Japanese patients. Special attention was paid to one patient carrying missense variant (p.S490P) exon 17, which overlapped with an deletion other allele. Accordingly, we generated mouse model S490P/NHEJ mice) coexisting frameshift...

The proton-activated G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) 4 (GPR4) is constitutively active at physiological pH, and GPR4 knockout protected dopaminergic neurons from caspase-dependent mitochondria-associated apoptosis. This study explored the role of in a 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated mouse model Parkinson’s disease (PD). In mice, subchronic MPTP administration cause...

In this study we investigated energy metabolism in the mdx mouse brain.To this end, prefrontal cortex, cerebellum, hippocampus, striatum, and cortex were analyzed. There was a decrease in Complex I but not in Complex II activity in all structures. There was an increase in Complex III activity in striatum and a decrease in Complex IV activity in prefrontal cortex and striatum. Mitochondrial crea...