Opioid and hypocretin neuromodulation of ventral tegmental area neuronal subpopulations

Abstract

The current view of the midbrain dopaminergic system is evolving towards a complex system of subpopulations of neurons with distinct afferent and efferent connections and, importantly, functionally different intrinsic characteristics. Recent literature on the phenotypic diversity of dopaminergic neurons has outlined that in the ventral tegmental area dopaminergic neurons are not as anatomically or electrophysiologically homogeneous as they were once thought to be. Instead, the midbrain dopaminergic system is now understood to be composed of anatomically and functionally heterogeneous dopaminergic subpopulations receiving specific afferent inputs and with different axonal projections. An additional layer of complexity is the neuromodulation of each of these dopaminergic circuits. This review will examine the distinguishing electrophysiological and neuromodulatory characteristics of the afferent and efferent connections of midbrain dopaminergic neurons.

Linked articles: This article is part of a themed section on Emerging Areas of Opioid Pharmacology. To view the other articles in this section visit http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bph.v175.14/issuetoc.

Figure 1

Input and output neurocircuits of projection‐target defined VTA dopaminergic neurons. This schematic depicts a subset of the afferent inputs and the efferent outputs of VTA dopaminergic neurons. It also illustrates the specific properties of these neurons as revealed by electrophysiological recordings in retrograde labelled cells, pharmacological analysis and by selective optogenetic stimulation.