Ventral tegmental area dopamine projections to the hippocampus trigger long-term potentiation and contextual learning.
Nat Commun
; 15(1): 4100, 2024 May 21.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-38773091
ABSTRACT
In most models of neuronal plasticity and memory, dopamine is thought to promote the long-term maintenance of Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) underlying memory processes, but not the initiation of plasticity or new information storage. Here, we used optogenetic manipulation of midbrain dopamine neurons in male DATCre mice, and discovered that stimulating the Schaffer collaterals - the glutamatergic axons connecting CA3 and CA1 regions - of the dorsal hippocampus concomitantly with midbrain dopamine terminals within a 200 millisecond time-window triggers LTP at glutamatergic synapses. Moreover, we showed that the stimulation of this dopaminergic pathway facilitates contextual learning in awake behaving mice, while its inhibition hinders it. Thus, activation of midbrain dopamine can operate as a teaching signal that triggers NeoHebbian LTP and promotes supervised learning.
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Dopamine
/
Ventral Tegmental Area
/
Long-Term Potentiation
/
Dopaminergic Neurons
/
Optogenetics
/
Hippocampus
/
Learning
Limits:
Animals
Language:
En
Journal:
Nat Commun
Journal subject:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Year:
2024
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: