Complexity Digest 2008.39 - 15

26-Sept-2008

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Reward-Predictive Cues Enhance Excitatory Synaptic Strength Onto Midbrain Dopamine Neurons, Science Bookmark and Share

Excerpts: When a rat learns to associate a cue with a reward, dopamine-containing neurons in the midbrain acquire an enhanced response to that cue through the action of glutamate.

Using sensory information for the prediction of future events is essential for survival. Midbrain dopamine neurons are activated by environmental cues that predict rewards, but the cellular mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon remain elusive. We used in vivo voltammetry and in vitro patch-clamp electrophysiology to show that both dopamine release to reward predictive cues and enhanced synaptic strength onto dopamine neurons develop over the course of cue-reward learning.