Optogenetic Intracranial Self-Stimulation as a Method to Study the Plasticity-Inducing Effects of Dopamine
| Autor: | Marta Brocka, Michael T. Lippert, Theresa Weidner, Frank W. Ohl, Kentaroh Takagaki, Jennifer Tegtmeier |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Dopaminergic Stimulation Optogenetics Biology Plasticity Ventral tegmental area 03 medical and health sciences 030104 developmental biology 0302 clinical medicine medicine.anatomical_structure Dopamine Brain stimulation Neuroplasticity medicine Neuroscience 030217 neurology & neurosurgery medicine.drug |
| Popis: | Appetitive brain stimulation in the dopaminergic system has been used in neuroscience for decades to research reward processing. The dopamine system is considered the fundamental system underlying reward processing and supports the appetitive effects of most brain stimulation approaches. Only recently, however, has optogenetics allowed cell-type specific stimulation of dopaminergic neurons. Here we describe the background, advantages, and limitations of optogenetic intracranial self-stimulation in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and passive optogenetic stimulation of the VTA as tools to study dopaminergic influences on neural plasticity. Behavioral readout with self-stimulation can serve as a functional control for passive optogenetic stimulation of the dopaminergic system. We provide detailed guidelines for the optogenetic, surgical, and behavioral methods required to perform these experiments successfully. In addition, we discuss caveats associated with applying these methods. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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