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Science 26 March 2004:
Vol. 303. no. 5666, p. 1941
DOI: 10.1126/science.303.5666.1941p
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This Week in Science
The reward prediction theory of dopamine neuron function suggests a selective role for midbrain dopamine neurons in reward. However, there has been no consensus on whether dopamine neurons change their firing in response to aversive stimuli. Most studies indicate that there is a small population of midbrain dopamine neurons that either increase or reduce their firing in response to aversive stimuli. To settle this matter, Ungless et al. (p. 2040) recorded from neurons in the ventral tegmental area of anesthetized rats and recorded the responses of the rats to tail-pinch stimuli and used subsequent morphological methods to identify the recorded neurons. After observing the responses of dopamine neurons identified by electrophysiological criteria, the authors morphologically identified dopamine neurons as opposed to nondopamine neurons. The small number of neurons that increased their firing during an aversive stimulus were in fact nondopaminergic.
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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)
