# Subcellular Mapping and Post-Synaptic Impacts of Striatal Dopamine Release During Behavior

> **NIH NIH F32** · BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS) · 2020 · $70,310

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The basal ganglia are a group of deep brain nuclei that play a central role in motivating, selecting, and learning
actions. The largest of these nuclei, the striatum, serves as the principal input, receiving widespread
convergent excitatory innervation from cortex and thalamus, as well as dopamine (DA) inputs from the
midbrain. DA has been shown to be integral for numerous cognitive functions, including reward response,
motivation, motor control, learning, and memory, and DA system abnormalities have been associated with a
number of neurological and psychiatric illnesses, such as addiction, depression, schizophrenia, obsessive-
compulsive disorder, and Parkinson's disease. Previous research has shown that dopamine neurons serving
different functions project to broadly different targets within the striatum. However, little is known about the
subcellular spatial organization of DA inputs onto single neurons, and whether there is also evidence for
functional segregation at this level. Furthermore, it remains unknown as to how these inputs directly impact
post-synaptic cell firing as a function of the spatial distribution of inputs along dendrites.
This proposal seeks to 1) develop methodological advances by which dopamine release onto the dendrites of
single striatal neurons can be investigated in real-time with subcellular resolution using 2-photon microscopy,
2) map functionally-relevant dopamine release onto striatal dendrites during spontaneous locomotion,
unexpected reward, and expected reward, and 3) examine the relationship between dopamine input and the
probability of postsynaptic neuronal firing output via simultaneous 2-photon microscopic imaging of dopamine
and calcium signaling.
The Brain Initiative, in its Brain 2025 Report, has stated among its priority areas “Maps at multiple scales:
Generate circuit diagrams that vary in resolution from synapses to the whole brain”, “Identifying fundamental
principles: Produce conceptual foundations for understanding the biological basis of mental processes through
development of new theoretical and data analysis tools”, and “The brain in action… dynamic picture of the
functioning brain”. We believe this proposal is very much in line with these stated priorities, by providing a
deeper understanding of the in vivo spatial and functional mapping of dopaminergic striatal circuitry at the
subcellular synaptic resolution, and further yielding novel insight into possible mechanisms by which
behaviorally-relevant computations may be carried out in the brain at the cellular and subcellular level.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9979652
- **Project number:** 5F32MH120894-02
- **Recipient organization:** BOSTON UNIVERSITY (CHARLES RIVER CAMPUS)
- **Principal Investigator:** Mai-Anh Vu
- **Activity code:** F32 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $70,310
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-08-01 → 2022-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9979652

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9979652, Subcellular Mapping and Post-Synaptic Impacts of Striatal Dopamine Release During Behavior (5F32MH120894-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9979652. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*