Different roles of D1/D2 medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens in pair bond formation of male mandarin voles

Different roles of D1/D2 medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens in pair bond formation of male mandarin voles

The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system has been implicated in pair bond formation. However, the involvements of DA release, real-time activities, and electrophysiological activities of D1/D2 medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell in pair bonding remain unclear. This work verif...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lizi Zhang, Yishan Qu, Larry J Young, Wenjuan Hou, Limin Liu, Jing Liu, Yuqian Wang, Lu Li, Xing Guo, Yin Li, Caihong Huang, Zijian Lv, Yi-Tong Li, Rui Jia, Ting Lian, Hao Feng, Hui Qiao, Zhixiong He, Fa-Dao Tai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 2025-06-01
Series:eLife
Subjects:
dopamine
nucleus accumbens
pair bond;
D1/D2 medium spiny neurons
synaptic transmission
Online Access:https://elifesciences.org/articles/100292
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The mesolimbic dopamine (DA) system has been implicated in pair bond formation. However, the involvements of DA release, real-time activities, and electrophysiological activities of D1/D2 medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell in pair bonding remain unclear. This work verified that male mandarin voles after pair bonding released higher levels of DA in the NAc shell and displayed higher levels of D1 MSNs activity and lower levels of D2 MSNs activity upon sniffing their partners compared to upon sniffing an unknown female. Moreover, pair bonding induced differential alterations in both synaptic plasticity and neuronal intrinsic excitability in both D1 MSNs and D2 MSNs. In addition, chemogenetic inhibition of ventral pallidum (VP) -projecting D2 MSNs in the NAc shell enhanced pair bond formation, while chemogenetic activation of VP-projecting D2 MSNs in the NAc shell inhibited pair bond formation. These findings suggest that different neuronal activity of NAc shell D1 MSNs / D2 MSNs regulated by increasing DA release after pair bonding may be a neurobiological mechanism underlying pair bond formation.
ISSN:2050-084X

Similar Items