ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2012
Impact of prefrontal cortex in nicotine-induced excitation of ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons in anesthetized rats.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cranial radiation disrupts dopaminergic signaling and connectivity in the mammalian brain.Acta neuropathologica communications · 2025Article
- Distinct neuronal processes in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex mediate changes in attention load and nicotine pro-cognitive effects in male rats.Frontiers in neural circuits · 2025Article
- Smoking, Obesity, and Post-Cessation Weight Gain: Neurobiological Intersection and Treatment Recommendations.Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare · 2025Review
- Neural Mechanisms of Neuro-Rehabilitation Using Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) over the Front-Polar Area.Brain sciences · 2023Review
- Roles of the Functional Interaction between Brain Cholinergic and Dopaminergic Systems in the Pathogenesis and Treatment of Schizophrenia and Parkinson's Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Role of corticotropin-releasing factor in alcohol and nicotine addiction.Brain research · 2020Review
- Investigating the influence of perinatal nicotine exposure on genetic profiles of neurons in the sub-regions of the VTA.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Neural circuits and nicotinic acetylcholine receptors mediate the cholinergic regulation of midbrain dopaminergic neurons and nicotine dependence.Acta pharmacologica Sinica · 2020Review
- Motor Imagery Training With Neurofeedback From the Frontal Pole Facilitated Sensorimotor Cortical Activity and Improved Hand Dexterity.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2020Article
- Why are Antidepressant Drugs Effective Smoking Cessation Aids?Current neuropharmacology · 2018Review
- Effects of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Over the Frontal Polar Area on Motor and Executive Functions in Parkinson's Disease; A Pilot Study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2018Article
- HIV-1 Proteins Influence Novelty-Seeking Behavior and Alter Region-Specific Transcriptional Responses to Chronic Nicotine Treatment in HIV-1Tg Rats.Nicotine & tobacco research : official journal of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco · 2017Article
- MEMRI is a biomarker defining nicotine-specific neuronal responses in subregions of the rodent brain.American journal of translational research · 2017Article
- Effects of environmental enrichment on ERK1/2 phosphorylation in the rat prefrontal cortex following nicotine-induced sensitization or nicotine self-administration.The European journal of neuroscience · 2015Article
- Cannabinoid CB2 receptors modulate midbrain dopamine neuronal activity and dopamine-related behavior in mice.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2014Article
- Nicotine exposure increases the complexity of dopamine neurons in the parainterfascicular nucleus (PIF) sub-region of VTA.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2014Article
- Choline transporter hemizygosity results in diminished basal extracellular dopamine levels in nucleus accumbens and blunts dopamine elevations following cocaine or nicotine.Biochemical pharmacology · 2013Article
- Cranial irradiation induces axon initial segment dysfunction and neuronal injury in the prefrontal cortex and impairs hippocampal coupling.Neuro-oncology advancesArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Systemic administration of nicotine increases dopaminergic (DA) neuron firing in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which is thought to underlie nicotine reward. Here, we report that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) plays a critical role in nicotine-induced excitation of VTA DA neurons. In chloral hydrate-anesthetized rats, extracellular single-unit recordings showed that VTA DA neurons exhibited two types of firing responses to systemic nicotine. After nicotine injection, the neurons with type-I response showed a biphasic early inhibition and later excitation, whereas the neurons with type-II response showed a monophasic excitation. The neurons with type-I, but not type-II, response exhibited pronounced slow oscillations (SOs) in firing. Pharmacological or structural mPFC inactivation abolished SOs and prevented systemic nicotine-induced excitation in the neurons with type-I, but not type-II, response, suggesting that these VTA DA neurons are functionally coupled to the mPFC and nicotine increases firing rate in these neurons in part through the mPFC. Systemic nicotine also increased the firing rate and SOs in mPFC pyramidal neurons. mPFC infusion of a non-α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) antagonist mecamylamine blocked the excitatory effect of systemic nicotine on the VTA DA neurons with type-I response, but mPFC infusion of nicotine failed to excite these neurons. These results suggest that nAChR activation in the mPFC is necessary, but not sufficient, for systemic nicotine-induced excitation of VTA neurons. Finally, systemic injection of bicuculline prevented nicotine-induced firing alterations in the neurons with type-I response. We propose that the mPFC plays a critical role in systemic nicotine-induced excitation of VTA DA neurons.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.