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Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure

Addictive substances are known to increase dopaminergic signaling in the mesocorticolimbic system. The origin of this dopamine (DA) signaling originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which sends afferents to various targets, including the nucleus accumbens, the medial prefrontal cortex, and t...

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Autores principales: Juarez, Barbara, Han, Ming-Hu
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987841/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26934955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npp.2016.32
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author Juarez, Barbara
Han, Ming-Hu
author_facet Juarez, Barbara
Han, Ming-Hu
author_sort Juarez, Barbara
collection PubMed
description Addictive substances are known to increase dopaminergic signaling in the mesocorticolimbic system. The origin of this dopamine (DA) signaling originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which sends afferents to various targets, including the nucleus accumbens, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the basolateral amygdala. VTA DA neurons mediate stimuli saliency and goal-directed behaviors. These neurons undergo robust drug-induced intrinsic and extrinsic synaptic mechanisms following acute and chronic drug exposure, which are part of brain-wide adaptations that ultimately lead to the transition into a drug-dependent state. Interestingly, recent investigations of the differential subpopulations of VTA DA neurons have revealed projection-specific functional roles in mediating reward, aversion, and stress. It is now critical to view drug-induced neuroadaptations from a circuit-level perspective to gain insight into how differential dopaminergic adaptations and signaling to targets of the mesocorticolimbic system mediates drug reward. This review hopes to describe the projection-specific intrinsic characteristics of these subpopulations, the differential afferent inputs onto these VTA DA neuron subpopulations, and consolidate findings of drug-induced plasticity of VTA DA neurons and highlight the importance of future projection-based studies of this system.
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spelling pubmed-49878412016-09-01 Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure Juarez, Barbara Han, Ming-Hu Neuropsychopharmacology Review Addictive substances are known to increase dopaminergic signaling in the mesocorticolimbic system. The origin of this dopamine (DA) signaling originates in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which sends afferents to various targets, including the nucleus accumbens, the medial prefrontal cortex, and the basolateral amygdala. VTA DA neurons mediate stimuli saliency and goal-directed behaviors. These neurons undergo robust drug-induced intrinsic and extrinsic synaptic mechanisms following acute and chronic drug exposure, which are part of brain-wide adaptations that ultimately lead to the transition into a drug-dependent state. Interestingly, recent investigations of the differential subpopulations of VTA DA neurons have revealed projection-specific functional roles in mediating reward, aversion, and stress. It is now critical to view drug-induced neuroadaptations from a circuit-level perspective to gain insight into how differential dopaminergic adaptations and signaling to targets of the mesocorticolimbic system mediates drug reward. This review hopes to describe the projection-specific intrinsic characteristics of these subpopulations, the differential afferent inputs onto these VTA DA neuron subpopulations, and consolidate findings of drug-induced plasticity of VTA DA neurons and highlight the importance of future projection-based studies of this system. Nature Publishing Group 2016-09 2016-04-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4987841/ /pubmed/26934955 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npp.2016.32 Text en Copyright © 2016 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Review
Juarez, Barbara
Han, Ming-Hu
Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure
title Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure
title_full Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure
title_fullStr Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure
title_full_unstemmed Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure
title_short Diversity of Dopaminergic Neural Circuits in Response to Drug Exposure
title_sort diversity of dopaminergic neural circuits in response to drug exposure
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4987841/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26934955
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npp.2016.32
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