Dopamine release in the basal ganglia

By M. Rice, J. Patel, S. Cragg. 2011

261 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Dopamine (DA) is a key transmitter in the basal ganglia, yet DA transmission does not conform to several aspects of the classic synaptic doctrine. Axonal DA release occurs through vesicular exocytosis and is action-potential and Ca2+ dependent. However, in addition to axonal release, DA neurons in midbrain exhibit somatodendritic release, by an incompletely understood, but apparently exocytotic mechanism. Even in striatum, axonal release sites are controversial, with evidence for DA varicosities that lack postsynaptic specialization, and largely extrasynaptic DA receptors and transporters. Moreover, DA release is often assumed to reflect a global response to a population of activities in midbrain DA neurons, whether tonic or phasic, with precise timing and specificity of action governed by other basal ganglia circuits. This view has been reinforced by anatomical evidence showing dense axonal DA arbors throughout striatum, and a lattice network formed by DA axons and glutamatergic input from cortex and thalamus. Nonetheless, localized DA transients are seen in vivo using voltammetric methods with high spatial and temporal resolution. Mechanistic studies using similar methods in vitro have revealed local regulation of DA release by other transmitters and modulators, as well as by proteins known to be disrupted in Parkinson’s disease and other movement disorders. Notably, the actions of most other striatal transmitters on DA release also do not conform to the synaptic doctrine, with the absence of direct synaptic contacts for glutamate, GABA and aceylcholie (ACh) on striatal DA axons. Overall, the findings reviewed here indicate that DA signaling in the basal ganglia is sculpted by cooperation between the timing and pattern of DA input and those of local regulatory factors.

Subfields: Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience

1. Raphael Cohn
2. Ianessa Morantte
3. Roby Velez
4. Jeff Clune
5. V. Ruta
6. S. Waddell
7. Pedro F. Jacob

In Cognitive Neuroscience

1. Roby Velez
2. Jeff Clune
3. Raphael Cohn
4. Ianessa Morantte
5. V. Ruta

Citations in the corpus

• Coordinated and Compartmentalized Neuromodulation Shapes Sensory Processing in Drosophila (2015, positive): “Dopamine can act diffusely, regulating circuit properties at a distance from its site of release (Rice et al., 2011).”
• Diffusion-based neuromodulation can eliminate catastrophic forgetting in simple neural networks (2017, background): “Aside from spillover, neurons can also directly inject neurotransmitters, such as the neuromodulators dopamine [59,60] and serotonin [61,62], into the ECS, without any consideration towards targeting a particular neuron [33,63,64].”
• The mysterious motivational functions of mesolimbic dopamine. (2012, unknown): “…in DA release can be relatively independent of DA neuron firing, and can instead reflect synchronized firing of cholinergic striatal interneurons that promote DA release through a presynaptic nicotinic receptor mechanism (Rice et al., 2011; Threlfell et al., 2012; Surmeier and Graybiel, 2012).”