Spontaneous activity of dopamine neurons and its role in behavioral regulation

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  • ICHINOSE Toshiharu
    Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University Department of Neuroscience of Disease, Center for Transdisciplinary Research, Niigata University
  • YAMAGATA Nobuhiro
    Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University

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  • ドーパミンニューロンの自発活動と行動制御におけるその役割
  • ドーパミンニューロン ノ ジハツ カツドウ ト コウドウ セイギョ ニ オケル ソノ ヤクワリ

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<p>Dopamine modulates a variety of animal behaviors that range from sleep and learning to courtship and aggression. Besides its well-known phasic firing to natural reward, a substantial amount of mid-brain dopamine neurons (DANs) are known to exhibit ongoing intrinsic activity in the absence of an external stimulus. While accumulating evidence points at functional implications for these intrinsic “spontaneous activities” of DANs in cognitive processes such as learning, a causal link to behavior and its underlying mechanisms has yet to be elucidated. It has recently been shown that DANs of the model organism Drosophila melanogaster are also spontaneously active, and state-of-art physiological approaches have uncovered that this activity reflects the behavioral/internal states of the animal. Strikingly, genetic manipulation of basal DAN activity resulted in behavioral alterations in the animal, providing critical evidence that links spontaneous DAN activity to behavioral states. Furthermore, circuit level analyses have started to reveal cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate or regulate spontaneous DAN activity. Through reviewing recent findings in different animals with the major focus on flies, we will discuss potential roles of this physiological phenomenon in directing animal behaviors.</p>

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