title: Dopamine and synaptic plasticity in dorsal striatal circuits controlling action selection.
abstract: The striatum is thought to play a central role in learning how to choose acts that lead to reward and avoid punishment. Dopamine-dependent modification of striatal synapses in the action selection circuitry has long been thought to be a key step toward this type of learning. The development of new genetic and optical tools has pushed this field forward in the last couple of years, demanding a re-evaluation of models of how experience controls dopamine-dependent synaptic plasticity and how disease states like Parkinson's disease affect the striatal circuitry.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL 60611, USA.
authors.forename: D James
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Surmeier
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Plotkin
authors.forename: Weixing
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000166:cytology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D004298:Dopamine / Q000378:metabolism*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009415:Nerve Net / Q000166:cytology*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D013569:Synapses / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D004298:Dopamine