Reward-Predictive Cues Enhance Excitatory Synaptic Strength onto Midbrain Dopamine Neurons

• DOI: 10.1126/science.1160873
• Publication Date: 2008-09-18T21:03:27Z
• Authors: Garret D. Stuber; Marianne Klanker; Bram de Ridder; M. Scott Bowers; Ruud N. Joosten; Matthijs G. Feenstra; Antonello Bonci
• Keywords: Male; Neurons; Patch-Clamp Techniques; Dopamine; Long-Term Potentiation; Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials; Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate; Synaptic Transmission; Nucleus Accumbens; Rats; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Reward; Mesencephalon; Conditioning, Psychological; Synapses; Animals; Learning; Receptors, AMPA; Cues; Signal Transduction

Using sensory information for the prediction of future events is essential for survival. Midbrain dopamine neurons are activated by environmental cues that predict rewards, but the cellular mechanisms that underlie this phenomenon remain elusive. We used in vivo voltammetry and in vitro patch-clamp electrophysiology to show that both dopamine release to reward predictive cues and enhanced synaptic strength onto dopamine neurons develop over the course of cue-reward learning. Increased synaptic strength was not observed after stable behavioral responding. Thus, enhanced synaptic strength onto dopamine neurons may act to facilitate the transformation of neutral environmental stimuli to salient reward-predictive cues.