IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v5y2014i1d10.1038_ncomms6390.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A glutamatergic reward input from the dorsal raphe to ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons

Author

Listed:
  • Jia Qi

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Neuronal Networks Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Shiliang Zhang

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Neuronal Networks Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Hui-Ling Wang

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Neuronal Networks Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Huikun Wang

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Electrophysiology Research Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Jose de Jesus Aceves Buendia

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Neuronal Networks Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Alexander F. Hoffman

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Electrophysiology Research Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Carl R. Lupica

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Electrophysiology Research Section, National Institutes of Health)

  • Rebecca P. Seal

    (University of Pittsburgh)

  • Marisela Morales

    (National Institute on Drug Abuse, Neuronal Networks Section, National Institutes of Health)

Abstract

Electrical stimulation of the dorsal raphe (DR) and ventral tegmental area (VTA) activates the fibres of the same reward pathway but the phenotype of this pathway and the direction of the reward-relevant fibres have not been determined. Here we report rewarding effects following activation of a DR-originating pathway consisting of vesicular glutamate transporter 3 (VGluT3) containing neurons that form asymmetric synapses onto VTA dopamine neurons that project to nucleus accumbens. Optogenetic VTA activation of this projection elicits AMPA-mediated synaptic excitatory currents in VTA mesoaccumbens dopaminergic neurons and causes dopamine release in nucleus accumbens. Activation also reinforces instrumental behaviour and establishes conditioned place preferences. These findings indicate that the DR–VGluT3 pathway to VTA utilizes glutamate as a neurotransmitter and is a substrate linking the DR—one of the most sensitive reward sites in the brain—to VTA dopaminergic neurons.

Suggested Citation

  • Jia Qi & Shiliang Zhang & Hui-Ling Wang & Huikun Wang & Jose de Jesus Aceves Buendia & Alexander F. Hoffman & Carl R. Lupica & Rebecca P. Seal & Marisela Morales, 2014. "A glutamatergic reward input from the dorsal raphe to ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6390
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms6390
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms6390
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/ncomms6390?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Aki Takahashi & Romain Durand-de Cuttoli & Meghan E. Flanigan & Emi Hasegawa & Tomomi Tsunematsu & Hossein Aleyasin & Yoan Cherasse & Ken Miya & Takuya Okada & Kazuko Keino-Masu & Koshiro Mitsui & Lon, 2022. "Lateral habenula glutamatergic neurons projecting to the dorsal raphe nucleus promote aggressive arousal in mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Xin-Yue Wang & Wen-Bin Jia & Xiang Xu & Rui Chen & Liang-Biao Wang & Xiao-Jing Su & Peng-Fei Xu & Xiao-Qing Liu & Jie Wen & Xiao-Yuan Song & Yuan-Yuan Liu & Zhi Zhang & Xin-Feng Liu & Yan Zhang, 2023. "A glutamatergic DRN–VTA pathway modulates neuropathic pain and comorbid anhedonia-like behavior in mice," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-15, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms6390. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.