Anatomic studies have demonstrated that the mesolimbic dopamine system receives a substantial afferent input from a variety of regions ranging from the prefrontal cortex through to the brain stem. However, how these afferents regulate dopamine neuron activity is still largely unknown. The mesopontine tegmentum provides a significant input to ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons, and it...

Dopamine is a neuromodulator the functions of which in the regulation of complex behaviors such as mood, motivation, and attention are well known. Dopamine appears in the brain early in the embryonic period when none of those behaviors is robust, raising the possibility that dopamine may influence brain development. The effects of dopamine on specific developmental processes such as neurogenesi...

The dopamine transporter (DAT) plays a crucial role in the clearance of extracellular dopamine in brain. Uptake of dopamine by the cloned human DAT has been shown to be electrogenic and voltage-dependent, with greater uptake observed at hyperpolarized potentials. Ventral mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons were used to assess the kinetics of dopamine uptake in relation to their electrical activi...

Most existing models of dopamine and learning in Parkinson disease (PD) focus on simulating the role of basal ganglia dopamine in reinforcement learning. Much data argue, however, for a critical role for prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine in stimulus selection in attentional learning. Here, we present a new computational model that simulates performance in multicue category learning, such as the ...

An in vitro model of mitochondrial dysfunction with subsequent oxidative stress was elaborated and utilized to study the effect of drugs, currently used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, on pathological H(2)O(2)-evoked [(3)H]dopamine efflux and the formation of toxic dopamine metabolites in rat striatal slices. 60 min rotenone (0.1-10 muM) pretreatment decreased dopamine content and [(3...

Dopamine mediates diverse functions such as motivation, reward, attention, learning/memory and sleep/arousal. Recent studies using model organisms including the fruit fly, have elucidated various physiological functions of dopamine, and identified specific neural circuits for these functions. Flies with mutations in the Drosophila dopamine transporter (dDAT) gene show enhanced dopamine signalin...

The dorsal striatum and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell of the ventral striatum have similar cellular components and are both richly innervated by dopamine neurons. Despite similarities that extend throughout the striatum, only the NAc shell has a conspicuous increase in basal dopamine upon the initial administration of psychostimulant drugs such as nicotine. As measured by microdialysis, the...

■ Most existing models of dopamine and learning in Parkinsonʼs disease (PD) focus on simulating the role of basal ganglia dopamine in reinforcement learning. Much data argue, however, for a critical role for prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine in stimulus selection in attentional learning. Here, we present a new computational model that simulates performance in multicue category learning, such as ...

Our current understanding of the relationship between the dopaminergic system and human brain disorders is based on two fundamental discoveries: dopamine-replacement herapy can alleviate Parkinson’s disease (1-3) and, secondly, many antipsychotic drugs are dopamine receptor antagonists (4-7). These discoveries have guided two major directions in dopamine-related basic research and drug design: ...

Few other neurotransmitters are of as intense interest to neuropsychiatry and neurology as dopamine, yet existing techniques to monitor dopamine release leave an important spatiotemporal gap in our understanding. Electrochemistry and fluorescence imaging tools have been developed to fill the gap, but these methods have important limitations. We circumvent these limitations by introducing a dopa...