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The Journal of Neuroscience, May 15, 2000, 20(10):3864-3873
Projections from the Rat Prefrontal Cortex to the Ventral
Tegmental Area: Target Specificity in the Synaptic Associations with
Mesoaccumbens and Mesocortical Neurons
David B.
Carr and
Susan R.
Sesack
Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, University of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
Excitatory projections from the prefrontal cortex (PFC) to the
ventral tegmental area (VTA) play an important role in regulating the
activity of VTA neurons and the extracellular levels of dopamine (DA)
within forebrain regions. Previous investigations have demonstrated that PFC terminals synapse on the dendrites of DA and non-DA neurons in
the VTA. However, the projection targets of these cells are not known.
To address whether PFC afferents innervate different populations of VTA
neurons that project to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) or to the PFC, a
triple labeling method was used that combined peroxidase markers for
anterograde and retrograde tract-tracing with pre-embedding
immunogold-silver labeling for either tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) or
GABA. Within the VTA, PFC terminals formed asymmetric synapses onto
dendritic shafts that were immunoreactive for either TH or GABA. PFC
terminals also synapsed on VTA dendrites that were retrogradely labeled
from the NAc or the PFC. Dendrites retrogradely labeled from the NAc
and postsynaptic to PFC afferents were sometimes immunoreactive for
GABA but were never TH-labeled. Conversely, dendrites retrogradely
labeled from the PFC and postsynaptic to PFC afferents were sometimes
immunoreactive for TH but were never GABA-labeled. These results
provide the first demonstration of PFC afferents synapsing on
identified cell populations in the VTA and indicate a considerable
degree of specificity in the targets of the PFC projection. The
unexpected finding of selective PFC synaptic input to GABA-containing
mesoaccumbens neurons and DA-containing mesocortical neurons suggests
novel mechanisms through which the PFC can influence the activity of
ascending DA and GABA projections.
Key words:
dopamine; GABA; nucleus accumbens; prelimbic cortex; infralimbic cortex; ultrastructure
Copyright © 2000 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/00/20103864-10$05.00/0
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