To study the role of NMDA receptors in dopamine signaling of the striatum, the brain area that receives glutamatergic inputs from various cortical areas and most dopaminergic inputs, we generated striatum-specific NMDA receptor-deficient mice. The mutant pups showed reduced food intake and retarded growth starting at the second postnatal week and died on approximately postnatal day 20 (P20). Th...

In the fields of psychiatry and neurology, the dopaminergic system is one of the most important neurotransmitter systems in the brain. Whereas pharmacological and biochemical studies had initially indicated two subclasses of dopamine receptors (DA-R), recent progress in molecular biology techniques has led to the identification of five distinct genes of DA-Rs (D1-R-D5-R) and splice variants. Th...

BACKGROUND The nervous system in songbirds is an accessible system for studying vocal learning and memory in vertebrates. In the song system, the anterior forebrain pathway (AFP) is essential for song learning and the vocal motor pathway (VMP) is necessary for song production. The premotor robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) located in the VMP receives input from the AFP. The RA receives dop...

Multiple stressors are intertwined with work, school and living conditions. Finding reasonable strategy to cope up with stresses has become an important issue to the current society. Although an inspiring idea, first proposed by Cassel, suggested that the positive social support could alleviate adverse stress responses, the underlying mechanisms are still uncovered. In the present study, we eva...

Although dopaminergic mechanisms are known to modulate cognitive function and cholinergic transmission, their pharmacological characterization remains incomplete. Herein, the role of D1 sites was evaluated employing neurochemical and behavioural approaches. By analogy to the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, galantamine (0.0025-0.63 mg/kg s.c.), the selective and high efficacy D1 receptor agonist...

It is widely accepted that dorsal striatum neurons participate in either the direct pathway (expressing dopamine D1 receptors) or the indirect pathway (expressing D2 receptors), controlling voluntary movements in an antagonistically balancing manner. The D1- and D2-expressing neurons are activated and inactivated, respectively, by dopamine released from substantia nigra neurons encoding reward ...

Early adverse experience is a well-known risk factor for addictive behaviors later in life. Drug addiction typically manifests during adolescence in parallel with the later-developing prefrontal cortex (PFC). While it has been shown that dopaminergic modulation within the PFC is involved in addiction-like behaviors, little is known about how early adversity modulates its development. Here, we r...

The dopaminergic system has been shown to control the amount of noise in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and likely plays an important role in working memory and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We developed a model that takes into account the known receptor distributions of D1 and D2 receptors, the changes these receptors have on neuron response properties, as well as identified circuitry inv...

striatum, and therefore function to integrate all input to Introduction this brain region. DARPP-32 is expressed in very high Of the many slow-acting neurotransmitters utilized by concentration (z50 mM) in virtually all medium spiny the mammalian central nervous system, dopamine has neurons (Ouimet et al., 1984, 1998) (Figure 2). Medium received by far the most attention. There are major medisp...