| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,420,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,020,000)
Fiscal Year 2013: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
Fiscal Year 2012: ¥2,210,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥510,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) react to aversive stimuli mostly by transient silencing. It remains unclear whether this reaction directly induces aversive responses in behaving mice. We examined this question by optogenetically controlling DA neurons in the VTA and found that the inactivation of DA neurons resulted in aversive response and learning. The nucleus accumbens (NAc), the major output nuclei of VTA DA neurons, was considered to be responsible for this response, so we examined which of the fundamental pathways in the NAc was critical to this behavior by using knock-down of D1 or D2 receptor, and found that the D2 receptor-specific pathway was crucial for this behavior.
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