Dopamine gates sensory representations in cortex.

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) maintains information about relevant sensory stimuli, in a process thought to rely on dopamine release. In a recent paper, Jacob et al. (J Neurosci 33: 13724-13734, 2013) demonstrated one way in which dopamine might facilitate this process. The authors recorded from PFC neurons in monkeys during local application of dopamine. They found that dopamine increases the gain of sensory-evoked responses in putative pyramidal neurons in PFC, potentially by inhibiting local interneurons.