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- Title
Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamate Neurons: Electrophysiological Properties and Projections.
- Authors
Hnasko, Thomas S.; Hjelmstad, Gregory O.; Fields, Howard L.; Edwards, Robert H.
- Abstract
The ventral tegmental area (VTA) has a central role in the neural processes that underlie motivation and behavioral reinforcement. Although thought to contain only dopamine and GABA neurons, the VTA also includes a recently discovered population of glutamate neurons identified through the expression of the vesicular glutamate transporter VGLUT2. A subset of VGLUT2+ VTA neurons corelease dopamine with glutamate at terminals in the NAc, but others do not express dopaminergic markers and remain poorly characterized. Using transgenic mice that express fluorescent proteins in distinct cell populations, we now find that both dopamine and glutamate neurons in the medial VTA exhibit a smaller hyperpolarization-activated current (Ih ) than more lateral dopamine neurons and less consistent inhibition by dopamine DM2 receptor agonists. In addition, VGLUT2+ VTA neurons project to the nucleus accumbens (NAc), lateral habenula, ventral pallidum (VP), and amygdala. Optical stimulation of VGLUT2+ projections expressing channelrhodopsin-2 further reveals functional excitatory synapses in the VP as well as the NAc. Thus, glutamate neurons form a physiologically and anatomically distinct subpopulation of VTA projection neurons.
- Subjects
GLUTAMIC acid; ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY; GABA; RHODOPSIN; BIOMARKERS; FLUORESCENT proteins; TRANSGENIC mice
- Publication
Journal of Neuroscience, 2012, Vol 32, Issue 43, p15076
- ISSN
0270-6474
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3128-12.2012