Discovery of a new neuronal population

In collaboration with a team from the Douglas Institute at McGill University in Montreal, researchers from the Neurophy Lab at the ULB Neuroscience Institute – Faculty of Medicine have identified a new population of neurons—little known until now—that play a key role in the brain's motor control.  This is the inner part of the brain that regulates motor function, motivation and impulses — an essential, if not the most important, area for decision making, and also plays a key role in addiction.

"These dopaminergic neurons act primarily on two populations of neurons in the striatum, each expressing a different type of dopamine receptor: either D1 receptors, which activate the neurons, or D2 receptors, which inhibit them," add Neurophy Lab scientists Alban de Kerchove d'Exaerde, Patricia Bonnavion and Christophe Varin. "These two populations form two distinct pathways, predicted to facilitate or inhibit motor function, while operating together."

There is another, less abundant, population of neurons with both types of dopamine receptor (D1 and D2). Its role and function, which were unknown until now, have now been brought to light by the scientists.

In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, the Belgian and Canadian teams used innovative genetic tools in mice to specifically target this other population of neurons and understand their functions and roles in brain physiology and motor control. As they explain in the article, "these results highlight a major new player in the physiology and functional organisation of the striatum. Its dysregulation could constitute an unsuspected risk of susceptibility to certain psychiatric disorders involving alterations of the striatum (addiction, autism, schizophrenia, ADHD, obsessive-compulsive disorders, etc.), and could also exert a major influence in the symptomatology of Parkinson's disease."

This discovery opens the door to new therapeutic avenues.