The brain’s ability to regulate dopamine release is critical for motivation, movement, and reinforcement learning, and becomes disrupted in disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and addiction disorders. A balance between striatal dopamine and acetylcholine has long been considered important, but there has been much debate about how or whether acetylcholine supports or hinders dopamine output.
In a recent study published in Nature Neuroscience, work led by Dr Yanfeng Zhang, a former postdoctoral researcher in the Cragg lab now a lecturer at the University of Exeter, and Professor Stephanie Cragg, revealed that cholinergic interneurons in the striatum operate a dynamic, ongoing scaling depression of striatal dopamine release. A background of activation of striatal nicotinic receptors transiently limits how dopamine axons can be reactivated in response to subsequent incoming stimuli.
[Read the full story on the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics website.](https://www.dpag.ox.ac.uk/news/new-cragg-lab-paper-published-in-nature-neuroscience-acetylcholine-and-dopamine-friends-or-foes)