GABA Neurons of the VTA Drive Conditioned Place Aversion

GABA Neurons of the VTA Drive Conditioned Place Aversion

Salient but aversive stimuli inhibit the majority of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and cause conditioned place aversion (CPA). The cellular mechanism underlying DA neuron inhibition has not been investigated and the causal link to behavior remains elusive. Here, we show t...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Tan, Kelly R., Turiault, Marc, Mirzabekov, Julie J., Doehner, Jana, Deisseroth, Karl, Tye, Kay, Yvon, Cedric, Labouebe, Gwenael, Luscher, Christian
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Elsevier 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/91554
Description
Summary:Salient but aversive stimuli inhibit the majority of dopamine (DA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and cause conditioned place aversion (CPA). The cellular mechanism underlying DA neuron inhibition has not been investigated and the causal link to behavior remains elusive. Here, we show that GABA neurons of the VTA inhibit DA neurons through neurotransmission at GABA[subscript A] receptors. We also observe that GABA neurons increase their firing in response to a footshock and provide evidence that driving GABA neurons with optogenetic effectors is sufficient to affect behavior. Taken together, our data demonstrate that synaptic inhibition of DA neurons drives place aversion.

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