RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Coordination of brain wide activity dynamics by dopaminergic neurons
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 042168
DO 10.1101/042168
A1 Heather K. Decot
A1 Vijay M.K. Namboodiri
A1 Wei Gao
A1 Jenna A. McHenry
A1 Joshua H. Jennings
A1 Sung-Ho Lee
A1 Pranish A. Kantak
A1 Yu-Chieh Jill Kao
A1 Manasmita Das
A1 Ilana B. Witten
A1 Karl Deisseroth
A1 Yen-Yu Ian Shih
A1 Garret D. Stuber
YR 2016
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/03/02/042168.abstract
AB Several neuropsychiatric conditions, such as addiction, schizophrenia, and depression may arise in part from dysregulated activity of ventral tegmental area dopaminergic (THVTA) neurons, as well as from more global maladaptation in neurocircuit function. However, whether THVTA activity affects large-scale brain-wide function remains unknown. Here, we selectively activated THVTA neurons in transgenic rats and measured resulting changes in whole-brain activity using stimulus-evoked functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Selective optogenetic stimulation of THVTA neurons not only enhanced cerebral blood volume (CBV) signals in striatal target regions in a dopamine receptor dependent fashion, but also engaged many additional anatomically defined regions throughout the brain. In addition, repeated pairing of THVTA neuronal activity with forepaw stimulation, produced an expanded brain-wide sensory representation. These data suggest that modulation of THVTA neurons can impact brain dynamics across many distributed anatomically distinct regions, even those that receive little to no direct THVTA input.