• The Korean Journal of Physiology and Pharmacology
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.721-729
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• 2018

GABAergic control over dopamine (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra is crucial for determining firing rates and patterns. Although GABA activates both $GABA_A$ and $GABA_B$ receptors distributed throughout the somatodendritic tree, it is currently unclear how regional GABA receptors in the soma and dendritic compartments regulate spontaneous firing. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine actions of regional GABA receptors on spontaneous firing in acutely dissociated DA neurons from the rat using patch-clamp and local GABA-uncaging techniques. Agonists and antagonists experiments showed that activation of either $GABA_A$ receptors or $GABA_B$ receptors in DA neurons is enough to completely abolish spontaneous firing. Local GABA-uncaging along the somatodendritic tree revealed that activation of regional GABA receptors limited within the soma, proximal, or distal dendritic region, can completely suppress spontaneous firing. However, activation of either $GABA_A$ or $GABA_B$ receptor equally suppressed spontaneous firing in the soma, whereas $GABA_B$ receptor inhibited spontaneous firing more strongly than $GABA_A$ receptor in the proximal and distal dendrites. These regional differences of GABA signals between the soma and dendritic compartments could contribute to our understanding of many diverse and complex actions of GABA in midbrain DA neurons.