Mooney K E, Inokuchi A, Snow J B, Kimmelman C P
Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Human Communication, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia 19104-4283.
Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 1987 Feb;96(2):151-7. doi: 10.1177/019459988709600207.
The projection between the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the olfactory tubercle (OT) was examined electrophysiologically in the rat. Stimulation of the olfactory bulb (OB) determined if the OT neurons were olfactory-related. Ipsilateral VTA stimulation produced a change in neuronal activity in 77% of the neurons tested, with 41% being inhibited, 24% excited, and 12% had mixed response. Contralateral VTA stimulation produced changes in only 38%. Intravenous administration of haloperidol was used in examination of the role of dopamine in this neural connection. The results suggest that the VTA-induced inhibitory response on OT neurons is mediated by dopamine, whereas excitatory responses are not. The VTA inhibitory influence projects primarily to olfactory-related neurons, since 60% of olfactory-related OT neurons were inhibited--as compared to 34% of non-olfactory-related neurons. This study documents electrophysiologically the VTA-OT connection and suggests that the dopaminergic input may modulate olfactory information projected to the OT from the OB. It also supports the concept that the OT acts as an integration center in central olfactory processing.
采用电生理学方法对大鼠腹侧被盖区（VTA）与嗅结节（OT）之间的投射进行了研究。刺激嗅球（OB）以确定OT神经元是否与嗅觉相关。同侧VTA刺激使77%的受试神经元的神经活动发生变化，其中41%被抑制，24%被兴奋，12%有混合反应。对侧VTA刺激仅使38%的神经元发生变化。静脉注射氟哌啶醇用于研究多巴胺在这种神经联系中的作用。结果表明，VTA对OT神经元的抑制性反应由多巴胺介导，而兴奋性反应则不然。VTA的抑制性影响主要投射到与嗅觉相关的神经元，因为60%的与嗅觉相关的OT神经元被抑制，相比之下，非嗅觉相关神经元的这一比例为34%。本研究用电生理学方法记录了VTA-OT联系，并表明多巴胺能输入可能调节从OB投射到OT的嗅觉信息。它还支持OT作为中枢嗅觉处理中的整合中心这一概念。
