[L3] Dopaminergic modulation of synaptic plasticity in learning and psychiatric disorders
Lecturer
Date/Time
June 28, 2021 10:40am-12:00pm
Abstract
Transient changes in dopamine activity in response to reward and punishment have been known to regulate reward-related learning. However, the cellular basis that detects the transient dopamine signaling has long been unclear. Using two-photon microscopy and optogenetics, I have shown that transient increases and decreases of dopamine modulate plasticity of dopamine D1 and D2 receptor-expressing cells in the nucleus accumbens, respectively. At the behavioral level, I characterized that these D1 and D2 cells cooperatively tune learning by generalization and discrimination learning. Interestingly, disturbance of the dopamine signaling impaired D2 cell plasticity and discrimination learning, which was analogous to salience misattribution seen in subjects with schizophrenia.
References
- Iino, Y.*, Sawada, T.*, Yamaguchi, K.*, Tajiri, M., Ishi, S., Kasai, H.† & Yagishita, S.† Dopamine D2 receptors in discrimination learning and spine enlargement. Nature, 579: 555–560, 2020.
- Yagishita, S., Hayashi-Takagi, A., Ellis-Davies, G.C.R., Urakubo, H., Ishii, S., and Kasai, H. A critical time window for dopamine actions on the structural plasticity of dendritic spines. Science 345:1616-1620, 2014.