Topic: midbrain dopamine neurons

When faced with a constantly changing, uncertain environment it is necessary to infer its underlying structure to guide behaviour. This has often been formalised as a value updating problem – where actions are chosen based on an incrementally updated weighted average of past reward. Activity of midbrain dopamine neurons has been commonly associated with the error in such value prediction, and it has been proposed to be crucial for learning and updating of values that inform decision making. However, it has become increasingly apparent that both humans and animals often use an alternative strat

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the progressive degeneration of midbrain dopamine neurons. Current treatments mainly rely on pharmacotherapy, which seems to provide beneficial effects only in the very early stages of the disease. Having an in vitro source of mature midbrain dopamine neurons from patients is paramount to initially reproduce disease phenotypes and subsequently identify disease-modifying drug candidates. In this context, three-dimensional (3D) induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC)-derived brain organoids play an important role, as they mim

An influential model of addiction proposes that repeated exposure to addictive drugs results in overvaluation of drug cues and long-lasting cue-drug associations, which results in heightened motivation to seek drugs upon exposure to these cues. This model focuses on the role of midbrain dopamine neurons in forming these associations, known as cue reactivity. However, the neurophysiological responses of non-dopamine neurons to cues predicting opioids vs. natural rewards have not been examined previously. Multi-unit electrophysiological recordings were collected from the midbrain of adult Long-E

Cocaine and other addictive drugs are known to cause sensitization, a reinforced behavioral response to repeated exposures to the same drug, eventually contributing to compulsive use. The sensitized response is maintained for several weeks of abstinence, and outlasts transient transcription-dependent changes in neuronal physiology and plasticity. Due to its complex properties, the 3D structure of the genome may undergo long-lasting changes upon a single drug exposure, and serve as cellular memory in the path to addiction. Here, we show that a single exposure to cocaine induces extensive rewiri