We previously reported that pregestational chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) and prenatal treatment with the antidepressant mirtazapine alter offspring anxiety and spatial memory (Viñas-Noguera et al. PLoS One 17: e0255546, 2022). The present study was designed to investigate the potential involvement of dopamine transmission in these behavioral changes. Maternal CUS and mirtazapine were administered as previously described. Adult offspring were anesthetized with chloral hydrate and electrodes were placed in the ventral tegmental area. Dopamine neurons were detected and recorded. We found no significant differences in the firing rate of dopamine neurons between the sexes and treatment groups (three-way analysis of variance for sex, CUS, and mirtazapine). It was also no change in the percentage of spikes in bursts in males. However, females whose mothers were exposed to stress and mirtazapine showed robust decrease in the percentage of spikes in bursts. Additionally, females whose mothers received mirtazapine but were not exposed to stress also showed a decrease in the percentage of spikes in bursts. We conclude that maternal stress and mirtazapine, interacting with each other, influence the excitability pattern of dopamine neurons in a sex-specific way. Based on the association between burst firing of dopamine neurons and object recognition observed in our recent study (Grinchii et al. Neuroscience Applied 2:102600, 2023), we suggest that the currently observed changes in dopamine neuronal firing activity may underlie the previously observed behavioral changes after maternal CUS and prenatal mirtazapine. This work was supported by grants APVV-19–0435, APVV-20-0202, VEGA-2/0057/22.