Topic: ex vivo electrophysiology

Cocaine and sugar act as appetitive stimuli, engaging the brain's dopaminergic system to induce positive experiences. While both substances trigger dopamine release, cocaine additionally blocks its reuptake. Dopamine-sensitive neurons, particularly those expressing DRD1 or DRD2, play a pivotal role in mediating these effects. Such cells were recently discovered in the Central Amygdala (CeA), a brain region involved in regulating various emotions, both aversive and appetitive. Given the limited research on the role of dopamine in this brain region, we studied the activity of dopamine-sensitive

The full-length amyloid precursor protein (APP), a key player in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is ubiquitously expressed throughout the brain. It is known to be abundantly expressed in presynaptic compartments where it interacts with proteins of the presynaptic release machinery. However, the physiological functions of APP in the CNS still remain to be investigated. Here we study the physiological role of APP in presynaptic plasticity and information transfer within the hippocampus. We deleted APP and the related protein APLP2 in dentate gyrus granular cells (GCs) using a viral gene transfer strat