Activation of Direct and Indirect Pathway Medium Spiny Neurons Drives Distinct Brain-wide Responses.

ABSTRACT: A central theory of basal ganglia function is that striatal neurons expressing the D1 and D2 dopamine receptors exert opposing brain-wide influences. However, the causal influence of each population has never been measured at the whole-brain scale. Here, we selectively stimulated D1 or D2 receptor-expressing neurons while visualizing whole-brain activity with fMRI. Excitation of either inhibitory population evoked robust positive BOLD signals within striatum, while downstream regions exhibited significantly different and generally opposing responses consistent with-though not easily predicted from-contemporary models of basal ganglia function. Importantly, positive and negative signals within the striatum, thalamus, GPi, and STN were all associated with increases and decreases in single-un

SUBMITTER: Lee HJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5528162 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature