Neural Circuits and Systems Neuroscience
Author: María Jesús Trujillo | Email: mtrujillo@fmed.uba.ar
María Jesús Trujillo1°2°, Agostina Presta1°2°, Micaela Buscema1°2°, Fernando Kasanetz1°2°
1° Universidad de Buenos Aires, Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Departamento de Ciencias Fisiológicas. Laboratorio de Fisiologia del Dolor, Grupo de Neurociencias de Sistemas. Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2° CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Fisiología y Biofísica Bernardo Houssay (IFIBIO Houssay). Buenos Aires, Argentina.)
The Anterior insular cortex (AIC) acts as a central anatomical integration hub for sensory,
emotional, motivational, and cognitive functions, including pain perception. The mesolimbic
dopaminergic system conveys information about salient motivational events and has been
shown to induce pain relief via D1 receptors (D1R) in the AIC. However, the mechanisms by
which dopamine regulates AIC microcircuit activity remain unclear.
We have previously shown that D1R-bearing neurons located in the superficial layers of the
AIC are primarily inhibitory interneurons, while D1R-positive cells in deeper layers comprise
both pyramidal cells and interneurons. Her we used immunofluorescence assays and
identified VIP-expressing, but not somatostatin or parvalbumin-expressing, as a major
subclass of D1R-bearing interneurons in the AIC. Morphological reconstructions revealed
the bipolar and multipolar features of D1R+ interneurons, typical of VIP+ cells. Furthermore,
using ex-vivo electrophysiology we found that a D1R agonist increased the excitability of
D1R+ cells of the AIC. Given the preferential connectivity of VIP+ interneurons to other
interneurons, our results suggest that dopamine in the AIC may act favoring the disinhibition
of output cells.
Further experiments will test the impact of dopamine modulation of AIC circuits on pain-
related behaviors.