Glutamate modulates DA release by acting on dopaminergic terminals (Chéramy et al., 1986b; Krebs et al., 1991; Chéramy et al., 1998, 1996) and because CINs mediate glutamatergic transmission (Guzman et al., 2011; Higley et al., 2011), we hypothesized that a fraction of the DA released by selective stimulation of CINs involves activation of glutamate receptors. Supporting this view, we found that CIN-evoked DA release relies –at least partially– on activation of AMPA receptors. This establishes even broader implications, given that glutamate released from CINs mediates not only excitation of MSNs, as previously described (Higley et al., 2011), but also shapes accumbal DA release.
