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Updated: Jun 4, 2026

A Plate-Based Assay for the Measurement of Endogenous Monoamine Release in Acute Brain Slices
Published on: August 11, 2021
Brain serotonergic circuitries
1Hôpitaux Universitaires de Genève, Département de Psychiatrie, Service de Neuropsychiatrie, Ch. Du Petit-Bel-Air, 2, CH-1225 Chêne-Bourg, Switzerland. yves.charnay@unige.ch
Abstract:
Brain serotonergic circuitries interact with other neurotransmitter systems on a multitude of different molecular levels. In humans, as in other mammalian species, serotonin (5-HT) plays a modulatory role in almost every physiological function. Furthermore, serotonergic dysfunction is thought to be implicated in several psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. We describe the neuroanatomy and neurochemistry of brain serotonergic circuitries. The contribution of emergent in vivo imaging methods to the regional localization of binding site receptors and certain aspects of their functional connectivity in correlation to behavior is also discussed. 5-HT cell bodies, mainly localized in the raphe nuclei, send axons to almost every brain region. It is argued that the specificity of the local chemocommunication between 5-HT and other neuronal elements mainly depends on mechanisms regulating the extracellular concentration of 5-HT the diversity of high-affinity membrane receptors, and their specific transduction modalities.
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