| First Author | Correia PA | Year | 2017 |
| Journal | Elife | Volume | 6 |
| PubMed ID | 28193320 | Mgi Jnum | J:241216 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5898162 | Doi | 10.7554/eLife.20975 |
| Citation | Correia PA, et al. (2017) Transient inhibition and long-term facilitation of locomotion by phasic optogenetic activation of serotonin neurons. Elife 6:e20975 |
| abstractText | Serotonin (5-HT) is associated with mood and motivation but the function of endogenous 5-HT remains controversial. Here, we studied the impact of phasic optogenetic activation of 5-HT neurons in mice over time scales from seconds to weeks. We found that activating dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) 5-HT neurons induced a strong suppression of spontaneous locomotor behavior in the open field with rapid kinetics (onset </=1 s). Inhibition of locomotion was independent of measures of anxiety or motor impairment and could be overcome by strong motivational drive. Repetitive place-contingent pairing of activation caused neither place preference nor aversion. However, repeated 15 min daily stimulation caused a persistent increase in spontaneous locomotion to emerge over three weeks. These results show that 5-HT transients have strong and opposing short and long-term effects on motor behavior that appear to arise from effects on the underlying factors that motivate actions. |
