Advanced Diagnostic System Research Laboratory, Aichi, Japan.
Department of Disease Control and Prevention, Aichi, Japan.
Mol Brain. 2021 Feb 28;14(1):43. doi: 10.1186/s13041-021-00760-3.
Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter that regulates attention through dopamine D1 and D2-receptors in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). We previously developed an object-based attention test (OBAT) to evaluate attention in mice. Disruption of the dopaminergic neuronal system in the PFC induced attentional impairment in the OBAT. However, previous studies have not systematically examined which specific brain regions are associated with the blockade of PFC dopamine D1 and D2-receptors in the OBAT. In this study, we investigated the association of dopamine D1 and D2-receptors in the PFC with attention and neuronal activity in diverse brain regions. We found that both dopamine D1 and D2-receptor antagonists induced attentional impairment in the OBAT by bilateral microinjection into the PFC of mice, suggesting that both dopamine D1 and D2-receptors were associated with attention in the OBAT. Our analysis of the neuronal activity as indicated by c-Fos expression in 11 different brain regions showed that based on the antagonist types, there was selective activation of several brain regions. Overall, this study suggests that both dopamine D1 and D2-receptors play a role in attention through different neuronal circuits in the PFC of mice.
多巴胺是一种关键的神经递质，通过前额叶皮层（PFC）中的多巴胺 D1 和 D2 受体调节注意力。我们之前开发了一种基于物体的注意力测试（OBAT）来评估小鼠的注意力。PFC 中多巴胺能神经元系统的破坏会导致 OBAT 中的注意力障碍。然而，以前的研究并没有系统地检查哪些特定的脑区与 PFC 中多巴胺 D1 和 D2 受体的阻断有关。在这项研究中，我们研究了 PFC 中的多巴胺 D1 和 D2 受体与注意力和不同脑区神经元活动之间的关系。我们发现，双侧微注射到小鼠 PFC 中的多巴胺 D1 和 D2 受体拮抗剂都会导致 OBAT 中的注意力障碍，这表明多巴胺 D1 和 D2 受体都与 OBAT 中的注意力有关。我们对 11 个不同脑区中 c-Fos 表达所指示的神经元活动的分析表明，根据拮抗剂的类型，几个脑区存在选择性激活。总的来说，这项研究表明，多巴胺 D1 和 D2 受体通过小鼠 PFC 中的不同神经元回路在注意力中发挥作用。
