Mesocorticolimbic Dopamine Pathways Across Adolescence: Diversity in Development

Mesocorticolimbic dopamine circuity undergoes a protracted maturation during adolescent life. Stable adult levels of behavioral functioning in reward, motivational, and cognitive domains are established as these pathways are refined, however, their extended developmental window also leaves them vuln...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in neural circuits Vol. 15; p. 735625
Main Authors: Reynolds, Lauren M., Flores, Cecilia
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Switzerland Frontiers Research Foundation 08.09.2021
Frontiers
Frontiers Media S.A
Subjects:
adolescence
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adults
Age
Behavior
Brain
Child development
Cognitive ability
development
Dopamine
Dopaminergic Neurons
Environmental effects
Environmental factors
guidance cues
Humans
Life Sciences
Males
Mental disorders
mesocorticolimbic dopamine system
microglia
Neurons and Cognition
Neuroscience
Puberty
Reinforcement
Reward
Weaning
guidance cues
development
mesocorticolimbic dopamine system
adolescence
miRNA
puberty
dopamine
microglia
ISSN:1662-5110, 1662-5110
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Mesocorticolimbic dopamine circuity undergoes a protracted maturation during adolescent life. Stable adult levels of behavioral functioning in reward, motivational, and cognitive domains are established as these pathways are refined, however, their extended developmental window also leaves them vulnerable to perturbation by environmental factors. In this review, we highlight recent advances in understanding the mechanisms underlying dopamine pathway development in the adolescent brain, and how the environment influences these processes to establish or disrupt neurocircuit diversity. We further integrate these recent studies into the larger historical framework of anatomical and neurochemical changes occurring during adolescence in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system. While dopamine neuron heterogeneity is increasingly appreciated at molecular, physiological, and anatomical levels, we suggest that a developmental facet may play a key role in establishing vulnerability or resilience to environmental stimuli and experience in distinct dopamine circuits, shifting the balance between healthy brain development and susceptibility to psychiatric disease.
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Reviewed by: Anthony A. Grace, University of Pittsburgh, United States; Bita Moghaddam, University of Pittsburgh, United States
Edited by: Mark Howe, Boston University, United States
ISSN:1662-5110
1662-5110
DOI:10.3389/fncir.2021.735625