Notice: Users may be experiencing issues with displaying some pages on stanfordhealthcare.org. We are working closely with our technical teams to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.
 

Learn about the flu shot, COVID-19 vaccine, and our masking policy »

Stanford Health Care

GABA Neurons of the VTA Drive Conditioned Place Aversion NEURON Tan, K. R., Yvon, C., Turiault, M., Mirzabekov, J. J., Doehner, J., Labouebe, G., Deisseroth, K., Tye, K. M., Luescher, C. 2012; 73 (6): 1173-1183

Abstract

Salient but aversive stimuli inhibit the majority of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and cause conditioned place aversion (CPA). The cellular mechanism underlying DA neuron inhibition has not been investigated and the causal link to behavior remains elusive. Here, we show that GABA neurons of the VTA inhibit DA neurons through neurotransmission at GABA(A) receptors. We also observe that GABA neurons increase their firing in response to a footshock and provide evidence that driving GABA neurons with optogenetic effectors is sufficient to affect behavior. Taken together, our data demonstrate that synaptic inhibition of DA neurons drives place aversion.

View details for DOI 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.02.015

View details for Web of Science ID 000301998700014

View details for PubMedID 22445344