Chunk #13 — Results — Glutamate acting at AMPA receptors mediates DA release evoked by selective activation of CINs

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Selective activation of cholinergic interneurons enhances accumbal phasic dopamine release: setting the tone for reward processing.

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2 or 30 Hz; see supplemental material). Bath application of the AMPA receptor antagonist NBQX (5 μM) attenuated the EPSC amplitude to 18.6% ± 3.4% of the pretreatment value; p = 0.0002, n = 4. This confirms that selective optical stimulation of CINs drives AMPA receptor activation on MSNs (Higley et al., 2011). Next, we monitored DA release changes triggered by selective CIN optical stimulation following NBQX. When added to the bath solution, NBQX (5 μM) significantly decreased the peak amplitude of DA release by 40.3% p < 0.01, n = 7; Fig. 3D, confirming that AMPA receptors contribute to the control of DA release evoked by CIN activation in the NAc.