被盖腹侧区
神经科学
谷氨酸的
多巴胺
焦虑症
谷氨酸受体
多巴胺能
心理学
生物
受体
焦虑
抗焦虑药
精神科
生物化学
作者
Qiuping Tong,Xiaotong Cui,Hao Xu,Xiaoshuang Zhang,Songhui Hu,Fang Huang,Lv Xiao
标识
DOI:10.1038/s41380-022-01809-y
摘要
Dopamine (DA) acts as a key regulator in controlling emotion, and dysfunction of DA signal has been implicated in the pathophysiology of some psychiatric disorders, including anxiety. Ventral tegmental area (VTA) is one of main regions with DA-producing neurons. VTA DAergic projections in mesolimbic brain regions play a crucial role in regulating anxiety-like behaviors, however, the function of DA signal within VTA in regulating emotion remains unclear. Here, we observe that pharmacological activation/inhibition of VTA D1 receptors will alleviate/aggravate mouse anxiety-like behaviors, and knockdown of VTA D1 receptor expression also exerts anxiogenic effect. With fluorescence in situ hybridization and electrophysiological recording, we find that D1 receptors are functionally expressed in VTA neurons. Silencing/activating VTA D1 neurons bidirectionally modulate mouse anxiety-like behaviors. Furthermore, knocking down D1 receptors in VTA DA and glutamate neurons elevates anxiety-like state, but in GABA neurons has the opposite effect. In addition, we identify the glutamatergic projection from VTA D1 neurons to lateral septum is mainly responsible for the anxiolytic effect induced by activating VTA D1 neurons. Thus, our study not only characterizes the functional expression of D1 receptors in VTA neurons, but also uncovers the pivotal role of DA signal within VTA in mediating anxiety-like behaviors.
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