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Poster B97 in Poster Session B - Thursday, August 8, 2024, 1:30 – 3:30 pm, Johnson Ice Rink
Dopamine synergistic effects on lateral inhibition and neuronal excitability promote the formation of striatal ensembles
Vicente Bosca1 (), Dennis Burke2, Veronica Alvarez3, Horacio Rotstein4; 1University of Pennsylvania (previously at New York University), 2University of California San Francisco, 3National Institute of Health, 4New Jersey Institute of Technology and Rutgers University
The striatum is the main input structure to the basal ganglia, and it plays an important role in action selection during motivated behaviors. This role is thought to involve the information processing of cortical and limbic input and be highly influenced by dopamine. Within the striatum, spiny projection neurons (SPNs) are functionally organized in neuronal ensembles that coordinate the selection of behaviors by promoting some and suppressing others. However, it is still unclear how neuronal ensembles are generated and how dopamine (DA) aids in this process. In this work, we use a computational model to study the orchestrated activity of the two main subclasses of SPNs: dSPNs and iSPNs. We assessed the role of the lateral inhibitory network on the ensemble activity and the selection of a chosen ensemble and determined the impact of DA at the cellular and synaptic levels. Our results revealed a critical interplay between a realistic connectivity pattern of lateral inhibition and the intrinsic excitability of SPNs. The model shows that DA’s modulation of neuronal excitability and GABA_A transmission synergize to promote ensemble formation, possibly accounting for DA function in action selection.
Keywords: striatum SPNs lateral inhibition dopamine