Electrophysiological evidence that intrastriatally administered N-methyl-D-aspartate augments striatal dopamine tone in the rat.

The firing rate and terminal excitability of identified nigrostriatal dopamine (DA) neurons was determined before, and over a 10-15 min period following, direct intrastriatal administration of the glutamate (GLU) agonist NMDA, or saline. NMDA (0.025 and 0.075 mumol) produced a short latency increase in DA cell firing rate. In 7/8 cases, this increase in firing rate was accompanied by a profound reduction in terminal excitability. The decrease in excitability usually outlasted the increase in firing rate (sometimes by more than 8 min), and was superseded at a later stage by a marked increase in excitability. None of these effects were seen with saline (n = 5), and they could all be blocked by preadministration of the competitive NMDA antagonist AP-7 (0.025 mumol; n = 6). The sequence of events leading to the observed results is argued to be as follows; NMDA initially excites striatal efferents to the DA cell, which through disinhibition and direct stimulation increase DA cell firing rate. Increased firing rate leads to enhanced striatal DA release. Dopamine's inhibitory influence pre-empts any effect NMDA itself may have on the terminals of nigrostriatal neurons, and counteracts NMDA's stimulatory effect on striatal output cells. Furthermore, the marked reduction in terminal excitability suggests that DA becomes the dominant influence in the striatum for a time. Hence, the net outcome of the injection is augmented striatal DA tone. Later, the effect of residual NMDA becomes predominant once more.