Journal
JOURNAL OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 26, Issue 18, Pages 4803-4810Publisher
SOC NEUROSCIENCE
DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5312-05.2006
Keywords
long-term potentiation; long-term depression; dopamine; prefrontal cortex; priming; NMDA receptor
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Executive functions of the brain are believed to require tonic dopamine inputs to the prefrontal cortex ( PFC). It is unclear, however, how this background dopamine activity controls synaptic plasticity in the PFC, a possible underlying mechanism of executive functions. Using PFC slices, we show that pairing of dopamine with weak tetanic stimulation, a maneuver that otherwise induces NMDA receptor-independent long-term depression ( LTD), induces long-term potentiation ( LTP) when primed with dopamine. This priming occurs through the combined activation of D-1 and D-2 receptors and requires 12-40 min to develop. Moreover, concurrent synaptic activation of NMDA receptors during priming is necessary for this novel form of LTP. We suggest that a role of background dopamine signals in the PFC is to prevent high-frequency synaptic inputs from abnormally inducing LTD and to secure the induction of LTP.
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