Immediate Early Gene Expression in D1-SPNs and D2-SPNs During a Striatum-dependent Reinforcement Learning Task
Advisor(s)
Dr. Jones G. Parker; Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine
Discipline
Biology
Start Date
21-4-2021 11:25 AM
End Date
21-4-2021 11:50 AM
Abstract
Dopamine signaling is thought to alter the excitability of the striatum’s principal neurons (D1- and D2-SPNs). We used immunohistochemistry to quantify the expression of Fos, a marker of neural activity, in mice trained in a head-fixed fear conditioning task that requires dopamine signaling in the striatum. We observed a relative increase in Fos-expressing D1- vs D2-SPNs, which may indicate how activity in these neurons facilitates motor learning. This learning dependent change in the levels of Fos expression in D1- and D2-SPNs may have occurred due to running in response to an aversive cue in our task. These changes may correspond to fluctuations in neural plasticity that may contribute to the changes in neural calcium activity previously observed by others in our laboratory. Our findings have implications for understanding disease processes that affect the dopamine system, such as Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia.
Immediate Early Gene Expression in D1-SPNs and D2-SPNs During a Striatum-dependent Reinforcement Learning Task
Dopamine signaling is thought to alter the excitability of the striatum’s principal neurons (D1- and D2-SPNs). We used immunohistochemistry to quantify the expression of Fos, a marker of neural activity, in mice trained in a head-fixed fear conditioning task that requires dopamine signaling in the striatum. We observed a relative increase in Fos-expressing D1- vs D2-SPNs, which may indicate how activity in these neurons facilitates motor learning. This learning dependent change in the levels of Fos expression in D1- and D2-SPNs may have occurred due to running in response to an aversive cue in our task. These changes may correspond to fluctuations in neural plasticity that may contribute to the changes in neural calcium activity previously observed by others in our laboratory. Our findings have implications for understanding disease processes that affect the dopamine system, such as Parkinson’s disease and schizophrenia.