Dataset Information

Phasic firing in dopaminergic neurons is sufficient for behavioral conditioning.

ABSTRACT: Natural rewards and drugs of abuse can alter dopamine signaling, and ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic neurons are known to fire action potentials tonically or phasically under different behavioral conditions. However, without technology to control specific neurons with appropriate temporal precision in freely behaving mammals, the causal role of these action potential patterns in driving behavioral changes has been unclear. We used optogenetic tools to selectively stimulate VTA dopaminergic neuron action potential firing in freely behaving mammals. We found that phasic activation of these neurons was sufficient to drive behavioral conditioning and elicited dopamine transients with magnitudes not achieved by longer, lower-frequency spiking. These results demonstrate that phasic dopaminergic activity is sufficient to mediate mammalian behavioral conditioning.

SUBMITTER: Tsai HC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5262197 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Phasic firing in dopaminergic neurons is sufficient for behavioral conditioning.

Tsai Hsing-Chen HC Zhang Feng F Adamantidis Antoine A Stuber Garret D GD Bonci Antonello A de Lecea Luis L Deisseroth Karl K

Science (New York, N.Y.) 20090423 5930

Natural rewards and drugs of abuse can alter dopamine signaling, and ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic neurons are known to fire action potentials tonically or phasically under different behavioral conditions. However, without technology to control specific neurons with appropriate temporal precision in freely behaving mammals, the causal role of these action potential patterns in driving behavioral changes has been unclear. We used optogenetic tools to selectively stimulate VTA dopamine ...[more]

PMID: 19389999

Similar Datasets

Project description:Phasic neurons typically fire only for a fast-rising input, say at the onset of a step current, but not for steady or slow inputs, a property associated with type III excitability. Phasic neurons can show extraordinary temporal precision for phase locking and coincidence detection. Exemplars are found in the auditory brain stem where precise timing is used in sound localization. Phasicness at the cellular level arises from a dynamic, voltage-gated, negative feedback that can be recruited subthreshold, preventing the neuron from reaching spike threshold if the voltage does not rise fast enough. We consider two mechanisms for phasicness: a low threshold potassium current (subtractive mechanism) and a sodium current with subthreshold inactivation (divisive mechanism). We develop and analyze three reduced models with either divisive or subtractive mechanisms or both to gain insight into the dynamical mechanisms for the potentially high temporal precision of type III-excitable neurons. We compare their firing properties and performance for a range of stimuli. The models have characteristic non-monotonic input-output relations, firing rate vs. input intensity, for either stochastic current injection or Poisson-timed excitatory synaptic conductance trains. We assess performance according to precision of phase-locking and coincidence detection by the models' responses to repetitive packets of unitary excitatory synaptic inputs with more or less temporal coherence. We find that each mechanism contributes features but best performance is attained if both are present. The subtractive mechanism confers extraordinary precision for phase locking and coincidence detection but only within a restricted parameter range when the divisive mechanism of sodium inactivation is inoperative. The divisive mechanism guarantees robustness of phasic properties, without compromising excitability, although with somewhat less precision. Finally, we demonstrate that brief transient inhibition if properly timed can enhance the reliability of firing.

Dataset Information

Phasic firing in dopaminergic neurons is sufficient for behavioral conditioning.

Publications

Phasic firing in dopaminergic neurons is sufficient for behavioral conditioning.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets