Topic: astrocytic gap junctions

The prefrontal cortex plays a crucial role in cognitive functions such as decision making, planning, and working memory. It is subjected to strong monoaminergic neuromodulation, particularly by dopamine from the VTA. While dopamine innervations in the prefrontal cortex are sparse, recent research indicates that the vesicular dopamine transporter VMAT2 in astrocytes contributes to dopaminergic homeostasis in the prefrontal cortex. Here we hypothesized that astrocytes could provide a shuttle mechanism through which appropriate tonic levels of dopamine would be redistributed across the prefrontal