Editorial: Dopaminergic control of experience encoding, memory and cognition (original) (raw)

Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience

Editorial on the Research Topic Dopaminergic control of experience encoding, memory and cognition Dopamine plays a central and multifaceted role in several cognitive functions. It is synthesized and released by dopaminergic neurons that originate from different brain regions, mainly the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the substantia nigra, and innervate several brain areas, including the nucleus accumbens, amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, striatum, and hippocampus . Dopamine exerts its effects through two major types of receptors: D1/D5 and D2-like receptors, which activate distinct signaling pathways and modulate synaptic plasticity and neuronal activity. The importance of dopamine in brain functioning is underscored by its well-known involvement in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, depression, and addiction . Moreover, dopamine-based treatments often disrupt the balance of the system and cause unwanted side effects in patients. Recent research has shed light on the broad involvement of dopamine in the normal functioning of the brain. Dopamine plays an intricate role in the encoding of experiences, a process that intersects with learning and memory, decision-making, novelty processing, motivation, sleep, and attention. This Research Topic addresses these issues with a focus on learning and memory and presents relevant findings that advance our understanding of the role of dopamine in the brain. How the different dopamine receptors affect brain functions is not well understood and was one of the questions addressed in the current Research Topic. Matzel and Sauce discuss that the balance of D1/5R and D2R with regard to their expression density, activity state, and availability may play a key role in attention and working memory, and in variations in intelligence. In line with this idea, Hagena et al. demonstrate that two mouse strains (CaOlaHsd and C57Bl6) have different patterns of D1/5R expression in the hippocampus and found that such altered balance results in changes in dopaminergic-dependent synaptic plasticity. Thus, differences in D1/D5R expression may explain, in part, strain-dependent variations in synaptic plasticity in the murine hippocampus. The complex relationship between reward, motivation, dopamine, and learning prediction error coding remains a challenging question. The contribution by de Oliveira Alves et al. examines the influence