24
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      A unique population of ventral tegmental area neurons inhibits the lateral habenula to promote reward.

      Neuron
      Animals, Axons, physiology, Behavior, Animal, Dopaminergic Neurons, Electrophysiological Processes, Female, Habenula, Male, Mesencephalon, Mice, Mice, Inbred C57BL, Neurotransmitter Agents, metabolism, Optogenetics, Patch-Clamp Techniques, Radiosurgery, Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction, Receptors, GABA-A, Reward, Synapses, Synaptic Transmission, Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase, genetics, Ventral Tegmental Area, cytology, gamma-Aminobutyric Acid

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPMC
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Lateral habenula (LHb) neurons convey aversive and negative reward conditions through potent indirect inhibition of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic neurons. Although VTA dopaminergic neurons reciprocally project to the LHb, the electrophysiological properties and the behavioral consequences associated with selective manipulations of this circuit are unknown. Here, we identify an inhibitory input to the LHb arising from a unique population of VTA neurons expressing dopaminergic markers. Optogenetic activation of this circuit resulted in no detectable dopamine release in LHb brain slices. Instead, stimulation produced GABA-mediated inhibitory synaptic transmission, which suppressed the firing of postsynaptic LHb neurons in brain slices and increased the spontaneous firing rate of VTA dopaminergic neurons in vivo. Furthermore, in vivo activation of this pathway produced reward-related phenotypes that were dependent on intra-LHb GABAA receptor signaling. These results suggest that noncanonical inhibitory signaling by these hybrid dopaminergic-GABAergic neurons act to suppress LHb output under rewarding conditions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Comments

          Comment on this article