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Updated: May 18, 2026

Comprehensive Profiling of Dopamine Regulation in Substantia Nigra and Ventral Tegmental Area
Published on: August 10, 2012
Dopaminergic modulation of synaptic transmission in cortex and striatum
Nicolas X Tritsch1, Bernardo L Sabatini
1Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Neurobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Abstract:
Among the many neuromodulators used by the mammalian brain to regulate circuit function and plasticity, dopamine (DA) stands out as one of the most behaviorally powerful. Perturbations of DA signaling are implicated in the pathogenesis or exploited in the treatment of many neuropsychiatric diseases, including Parkinson's disease (PD), addiction, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Tourette's syndrome. Although the precise mechanisms employed by DA to exert its control over behavior are not fully understood, DA is known to regulate many electrical and biochemical aspects of neuronal function including excitability, synaptic transmission, integration and plasticity, protein trafficking, and gene transcription. In this Review, we discuss the actions of DA on ionic and synaptic signaling in neurons of the prefrontal cortex and striatum, brain areas in which dopaminergic dysfunction is thought to be central to disease.
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