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Corticostriatal and mesocortical dopamine systems: do species differences matter?

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 15, page 63 (2014)Cite this article

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Gordon M. G. Shepherd recently wrote a stimulating Review (Corticostriatal connectivity and its role in disease. Nature Rev. Neurosci. 14, 278–291 (2013))1 that provides novel perspectives on the potential role of the corticostriatal systems in neuropsychiatric disorders ranging from autism and schizophrenia to Parkinson's disease. However, we believe that important differences between the rodent and primate brain are not sufficiently discussed in this Review.

Species differences should also be considered when discussing dopaminergic projections to the cerebral cortex (Fig. 1b). In rodents, mesocortical dopamine projections arise almost exclusively from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and terminate mostly in prefrontal regions. The primary motor cortex, where a large population of PT neurons is located, is only sparsely innervated by these fibres. By contrast, primates (including humans) have gained a substantial dopaminergic innervation of M1 and related motor cortices7,8; this innervation has arisen in large part from the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) and the retrorubral area (RRA)9,10, thereby suggesting a prominent role of cortical dopamine on PT neurons in the M1 of primates, but not in rodents. These species differences in cortical dopamine projections might be important for our understanding of the pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease, in which neurons in the SNc and RRA are far more affected by the neurodegenerative process than those in VTA.

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Figure 1: Highly simplified diagram of key anatomical differences between rodents and primates with regard to pyramidal tract neurons (a) and the sources of dopamine innervation of prefrontal/cingulate and M1 cortices (b).

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Acknowledgements

The authors are supported by US National Institute of Health grants P50NS071669 (T.W., M.R.D. and Y.S.) and R01NS037948, NS083386, R01NS071074 and RR00165 (T.W. and Y.S.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Morris UDALL Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease and the Department of Neurology, Yoland Smith and Thomas Wichmann are at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, 954 Gatewood Rd NE, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.,

    Yoland Smith & Thomas Wichmann

  2. Mahlon R. DeLong is at the Morris UDALL Center of Excellence for Parkinson's Disease and the Department of Neurology, Emory University, Woodruff Memorial Building, Pierce Drive, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA.,

    Mahlon R. DeLong

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  1. Yoland Smith
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Correspondence to Yoland Smith.

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Smith, Y., Wichmann, T. & DeLong, M. Corticostriatal and mesocortical dopamine systems: do species differences matter?. Nat Rev Neurosci 15, 63 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3469-c1

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