ArticleBiological psychiatry2018
DCC Receptors Drive Prefrontal Cortex Maturation by Determining Dopamine Axon Targeting in Adolescence.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 136 citations in OpenAlex.
- Adolescent Alcohol and Stress Exposure Rewires Key Cortical Neurocircuitry.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- Exploring the shared genetic architecture and causal relationship between childhood maltreatment and psychiatric disorders.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Paradoxical role of the mesocorticolimbic Netrin1-DCC pathway in social competition and vulnerability to methamphetamine abuse during adolescence.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- A comprehensive overview of the biological foundations of ADHD.Bioscience reports · 2026Review
- Population-level encoding of task information is stronger in the adolescent compared to adult frontal cortex.Developmental cognitive neuroscience · 2026Article
- Annual Research Review: Neural mechanisms of eating disorders in youth - from current theory and findings to future directions.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Single-cell spatial map of cis-regulatory elements for disease-related genes in the macaque cortex.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Prefrontal Cortex Dysfunction as a Precipitating Factor for Schizophrenia and Depression.Journal of neurochemistry · 2026Review
- Amphetamine in adolescence induces a sex-specific mesolimbic dopamine phenotype in the adult prefrontal cortex.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Adolescent nicotine exposure and persistent neurocircuitry changes: unveiling lifelong psychiatric risks.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- Divergent outcomes of delta 9 - tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in adolescence on mesocortical dopamine and cognitive development in male and female mice.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Potential roles for microglia in drug addiction: Adolescent neurodevelopment and beyond.Journal of neuroimmunology · 2025Review
- Dynamic Functional Connectivity Between Amygdala and Cognitive Control Network Predicts Delay Discounting in Older Adolescents.Human brain mapping · 2025Article
- Article
- Adolescent maturation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex glutamate:GABA and cognitive function is supported by dopamine-related neurobiology.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- Establishing functionally segregated dopaminergic circuits.Trends in neurosciences · 2025Review
- Adolescent THC impacts on mPFC dopamine-mediated cognitive processes in male and female rats.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Integrative multiomics reveals common endotypes across PSEN1, PSEN2, and APP mutations in familial Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2025Article
- Building an action circuit with nigrostriatal dopaminergic neurons and striatonigral neurons.Handbook of behavioral neuroscience · 2025Article
- Maternal exacerbating and protective factors that shape the prevalence and severity of child attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder: a narrative review.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Review
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDopaminergic input to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) increases throughout adolescence and, by establishing precisely localized synapses, calibrates cognitive function. However, why and how mesocortical dopamine axon density increases across adolescence remains unknown.
methodsWe used a developmental application of axon-initiated recombination to label and track the growth of dopamine axons across adolescence in mice. We then paired this recombination with cell-specific knockdown of the netrin-1 receptor DCC to determine its role in adolescent dopamine axon growth. We then assessed how altering adolescent PFC dopamine axon growth changes the structural and functional development of the PFC by quantifying pyramidal neuron morphology and cognitive performance.
resultsWe show, for the first time, that dopamine axons continue to grow from the striatum to the PFC during adolescence. Importantly, we discover that DCC, a guidance cue receptor, controls the extent of this protracted growth by determining where and when dopamine axons recognize their final target. When DCC-dependent adolescent targeting events are disrupted, dopamine axons continue to grow ectopically from the nucleus accumbens to the PFC and profoundly change PFC structural and functional development. This leads to alterations in cognitive processes known to be impaired across psychiatric conditions.
conclusionsThe prolonged growth of dopamine axons represents an extraordinary period for experience to influence their adolescent trajectory and predispose to or protect against psychopathology. DCC receptor signaling in dopamine neurons is a molecular link where genetic and environmental factors may interact in adolescence to influence the development and function of the prefrontal cortex.
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