Striatal dopamine mediates hallucination-like perception in mice

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychiatry
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Hallucinations are a key symptom of psychotic disorders, linked to elevated dopamine.
• Understanding the neural circuits underlying hallucinations is difficult due to challenges in studying them in animal models.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a quantifiable task for studying hallucination-like perception in mice.
• To investigate the role of dopamine and striatal circuits in the generation of hallucinations.

Main Methods:

• Developed a novel behavioral task to measure hallucination-like perception in mice.
• Utilized optogenetics to stimulate mesostriatal dopamine neurons.
• Administered the antipsychotic drug haloperidol.
• Correlated mouse behaviors with human self-reported hallucinations.

Main Results:

• The developed task successfully quantified hallucination-like percepts in mice.
• Hallucination-like percepts increased following specific manipulations and correlated with human experiences.
• Elevated striatal dopamine levels preceded hallucination-like percepts.
• Optogenetic stimulation induced these percepts, which were reversed by haloperidol.

Conclusions:

• Dopamine-dependent striatal circuits play a causal role in hallucination-like perception.
• This study provides a valuable model for investigating the neurobiology of hallucinations.
• Findings open new avenues for developing circuit-based treatments for psychotic disorders.