Firing patterns of midbrain dopamine neurons: differences between A9 and A10 cells

Dopamine neurons of the substantia nigra (A9) and the ventral tegmental area (A10), giving rise to the nigrostriatal and mesolimbic dopamine pathways, respectively, are commonly supposed to show similar electrophysiological activity. There are, however, instances where the two systems are differently modulated. To assess possible physiological differences in the neuronal activity of A9 and A10 neurons, randomly sampled single cells were extracellularly recorded in the chloral hydrate-anaesthetized male rat. In addition to firing rate, the degree of burst firing and the regularity of firing were quantitatively analysed. Our results show that although A9 and A10 do not differ in firing rates, A10 neuronal activity is markedly less regular and shows a higher degree of burst firing, as judged from analysis of inter-spike time interval histograms. Mean burst firing values were 3% for the A9, and 23% for the A10 neurons. Regularity was described by variation coefficients of inter-spike time interval histograms. The mean variation coefficient was 38.4% in the A9 group and 63.8% in the A10 group, i.e. the A10 neuronal firing was less regular. The difference in regularity is partly, but not fully, dependent on the difference in burst firing. Previous biochemical and physiological studies strongly support the functional significance of modulatory changes in midbrain dopamine-cell firing patterns. Since the firing pattern of midbrain dopamine cells seems to be controlled by synaptic inputs, our results indicate a higher tonic modulatory influence on the A10 than on the A9 neurons. Thus the present results imply the pharmacological possibility of preferentially affecting A10 versus A9 dopamine cell function.