Two sources of dopamine for the hippocampus.
This article describes three recent papers that together suggest that novelty signalling in the brain's memory centre arises from two different brain pathways, whereas up until recently it was thought to originate from only one. Both pathways use a chemical messenger called dopamine.
Scientific Abstract
Dopaminergic signalling is established as playing an important role in novelty related modulation of hippocampal memory. Two recent studies have identified the noradrenergic fibres originating in the locus coeruleus as an additional source of neurotransmitter acting on dopaminergic receptors in the hippocampus.
Dopaminergic axons in the dorsal CA1 subfield of the hippocampus visualized through green fluorescent protein expression after transfection with an AAV at the cell bodies in the VTA. Inserts show anti tyrosine hydroxylase staining for the same axonal segments in magenta. Cell nuclei (white) show the location of the pyramidal cell layer.
Citation
2017. Trends Neurosci., 40(7):383-384.
Free Full Text at Europe PMC
Related Content
Publication
2019. Trends Neurosci., 42(2):102-114.
Publication
2016.PLoS Comput. Biol., 12(9):e1005062.
Publication
2017. J. Neurosci., 37(41):9977-9998.
Publication
2019. Nat. Commun., 10(1):5426.