The DOI matches its Crossref record; 46 of the 46 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Burst activity of ventral tegmental dopamine neurons is elicited by sensory stimuli in the awake cat
Open accessAbstract
In light of evidence implicating dopamine in the pathophysiology of attention deficit disorder and schizophrenia, diseases involving attentional or sensory processing abnormalities, it was of interest to determine whether and how dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area respond to sensory stimuli. The single-unit responses of ventral tegmental dopamine neurons were recorded in freely-moving cats during the presentation of brief, non-conditioned auditory and visual stimuli. Both auditory and visual stimuli produced neuronal excitation, involving a greater than 5-fold increase in the probability of burst firing followed by a period of burst inhibition. The burst nature of the single-unit response suggests that sensory-induced dopamine release at target sites was disproportionally large relative to the discharge frequency. While characteristics of the dopaminergic sensory response were similar for auditory and visual stimuli, the response latency was longer for visual stimuli. The results demonstrate that dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area, the site of origin for mesolimbocortical dopamine neurons, are reliably activated by non-conditioned auditory and visual stimuli.
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“While many previous studies have reported phasic firing of dopaminergic neurons in response to light flashes in laboratory animals (Horvitz et al., 1997; Comoli et al., 2003; Dommett et al., 2005), it is unclear how NAc dopamine release encodes the properties and/or emotional valence of arousing visual stimuli, such as visual threats.”
From Ventral striatum dopamine release encodes unique properties of visual stimuli in mice (2023) · cites this paper as Horvitz et al., 1997
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“Recognition of the two-component structure of phasic dopamine responses may also resolve earlier controversies, which suggested an attentional rather than rewarding role of the dopamine prediction-error signal64,65 on the basis of activations following exposure to physically salient stimuli16,20 and punishers24.”
From Dopamine reward prediction-error signalling: A two-component response (2016) · cites this paper as [20]
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“Evidence for this theory has been provided by studies showing that patients with schizophrenia exhibit abnormally high levels of neural activity to self-generated sensory stimuli.[56][57][58][59]”
From Schizophrenia, myelination, and delayed corollary discharges: a hypothesis (2012) · cites this paper as [59]
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Metadata
- Authors
- Horvitz, J. C., Stewart, T., & Jacobs, B. L.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Princeton University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Horvitz, Jon C
- ORCID
- Horvitz, Jon C
- Venue
- Brain Research
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 1997-06
- Volume
- 759
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 251-258
- ISSN
- 0006-8993 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2008177747
- Cited by
- 283
- References
- 46
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 11 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 15 · 2012: 9
- FWCI
- 3.55
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Brain Research (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural dynamics and brain function
- Keywords
- ventral tegmental area, dopaminergic neurons, burst firing, sensory stimuli, auditory stimuli, visual stimuli, single-unit responses, dopamine release, response latency, attention deficit disorder, schizophrenia, cats
- MeSH terms
- Acoustic Stimulation, Animals, Cats, Dopamine, Evoked Potentials, Male, Neurons, Photic Stimulation, Tegmentum Mesencephali, Wakefulness
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