Schizophrenia

...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, Parkinson`s disease and drug addiction.

When a person receives a pleasurable stimulus, dopamine neurons in the brain start firing in bursts.

So-called 'burst firing' is how the brain signals reward and modulates goal-directed behavior.

But just how a stimulus causes neurons to switch into or out of burst mode has been a mystery.

Lodge and Grace found that one area in the brain stem - the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus - is critical to normal dopamine function.

'We`ve found, for the first time, the brain area that acts as the gate, telling neurons either to go into this communication mode or to stop communicating,' said Grace.

As a result, the scientists say a disruption in that area may play a major role in dopamine-related brain function, both in normal behaviors and psychiatric disorders.

The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b, Parkinson's disease and drug addiction.

When a person receives a pleasurable stimulus, dopamine neurons in the brain start firing in bursts.

So-called "burst firing" is how the brain signals reward and modulates goal-directed behavior.

But just how a stimulus causes neurons to switch into or out of burst mode has been a mystery.

Lodge and Grace found that one area in the brain stem - the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus - is critical to normal dopamine function.

"We've found, for the first time, the brain area that acts as the gate, telling neurons either to go into this communication mode or to stop communicating," said Grace.

As a result, the scientists say a disruption in that area may play a major role in dopamine-related brain function, both in normal behaviors and psychiatric disorders.

The research appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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...ba href=/schizophrenia/a/b and drug addiction, disrupt the signaling of dopamine neurons.

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