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The Journal of Neuroscience, January 15, 2001, 21(2):676-681
Amygdala Regulation of Nucleus Accumbens Dopamine Output is
Governed by the Prefrontal Cortex
Mark E.
Jackson and
Bita
Moghaddam
Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, West
Haven, Connecticut 06516
A dynamic interaction between the prefrontal cortex (PFC),
amygdala, and nucleus accumbens (NAc) may be fundamental to regulation of goal-directed behavior by affective and cognitive processes. This
study demonstrates that a mechanism for this triadic relationship is an
inhibitory control by prefrontal cortex on accumbal dopamine release during amygdala activation. In freely moving rats,
microstimulation of basolateral amygdala at intensities that produced
mild behavioral activation produced an expected rapid increase in
glutamate efflux in the prefrontal cortex and the nucleus accumbens
shell region of the ventral striatum. However, during the stimulation,
dopamine release increased only in the prefrontal cortex, not in the
nucleus accumbens. An increase in accumbal dopamine release was
observed during the stimulation if glutamate activation in the
prefrontal cortex was inhibited at either presynaptic or postsynaptic
levels. Some behaviors expressed during the stimulation were
intensified in animals in which prefrontal cortex glutamate activation
was blocked. In addition, these animals continued to express
stimulus-induced behaviors after the termination of stimulation,
whereas normal poststimulus behaviors such as ambulation and grooming
were not displayed as frequently. Considering that dopamine
neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens is thought to play an
integral role in goal-directed motor behavior, these findings suggest
that the prefrontal cortex influences the behavioral impact of amygdala activation via a concomitant active suppression of accumbal dopamine release. Absence of this cortical influence appears to result in an
aberrant pattern of behavioral expression in response to amygdala
activation, including behavioral perseveration after stimulus termination.
Key words:
AMPA; striatum; ventral tegmental area; metabotropic
glutamate receptors; schizophrenia; motivation
Copyright © 2001 Society for Neuroscience 0270-6474/01/212676-06$05.00/0
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