The role of NMDA currents in state transitions of the nucleus accumbens medium spiny neuron

The nucleus accumbens (NAcb) integrates information from a wide range of glutamatergic afferent inputs, including the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. One of the glutamatergic receptors, the NMDA channel, has been implicated in the non-linearity of the current-voltage relationship in these cells under certain input conditions. In order to examine the relationship of the different glutamatergic receptors to the membrane response, we modeled the AMPA, GABA"A and NMDA receptors in the medium spiny (MSP) cells and their afferent input. The model demonstrates that the NMDA current is capable of sustaining certain membrane states and contributes to the non-linearity of the membrane response to input.

[1]  C. Lüscher,et al.  Restless AMPA receptors: implications for synaptic transmission and plasticity , 2001, Trends in Neurosciences.

[2]  Nils Ole Dalby,et al.  Activation of NMDA receptors in rat dentate gyrus granule cells by spontaneous and evoked transmitter release. , 2003, Journal of neurophysiology.

[3]  Bita Moghaddam,et al.  Bringing Order to the Glutamate Chaos in Schizophrenia , 2003, Neuron.

[4]  C. Pennartz,et al.  The nucleus accumbens as a complex of functionally distinct neuronal ensembles: An integration of behavioural, electrophysiological and anatomical data , 1994, Progress in Neurobiology.

[5]  B. Everitt,et al.  Emotion and motivation: the role of the amygdala, ventral striatum, and prefrontal cortex , 2002, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

[6]  Peter Somogyi,et al.  Increased number of synaptic GABAA receptors underlies potentiation at hippocampal inhibitory synapses , 1998, Nature.

[7]  J. Bargas,et al.  Spontaneous Voltage Oscillations in Striatal Projection Neurons in a Rat Corticostriatal Slice , 2003, The Journal of physiology.

[8]  S. Nelson,et al.  The NMDA-to-AMPA ratio at synapses onto layer 2/3 pyramidal neurons is conserved across prefrontal and visual cortices. , 2003, Journal of neurophysiology.

[9]  Mark J. Thomas,et al.  Long-term depression in the nucleus accumbens: a neural correlate of behavioral sensitization to cocaine , 2001, Nature Neuroscience.

[10]  M. Bradley,et al.  Emotion and motivation. , 2007 .

[11]  Anthony A Grace,et al.  Gating of information flow within the limbic system and the pathophysiology of schizophrenia , 2000, Brain Research Reviews.

[12]  D. S. Zahm,et al.  An integrative neuroanatomical perspective on some subcortical substrates of adaptive responding with emphasis on the nucleus accumbens , 2000, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.