DOPAMINERGIC MODULATION OF NETWORK ACTIVITY IN BASOLATERAL AMYGDALA

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. In collaboration with Dr Virginia Pickel of Columbia University, New York, the effects of dopamine (DA) receptor activation on glutamate transmission in the basolateral amygdala (BLA) were examined. We combined electron-microscopic and electrophysiological techniques to demonstrate that in the postsynaptic membrane of BLA projection neurons a direct protein-protein interaction occurs between NMDA receptors and dopamine D1 receptors, which functions to attenuate the NMDA receptor-mediated postsynaptic currents. Moreover, we demonstrated that a subpopulation of glutamatergic afferents into the BLA also co-express both NMDA and D1 receptors, suggesting that a protein-protein interaction may also occur in presynaptic terminals.