[BIC-announce] FW: Special lecture - Wednesday January 16, 2008 at 4 pm- WB 201 - Interaction between Dopamine & NMDA receptor in the Amygdala

[Jennifer Chew, Ms.]

PLEASE DISCARD IF THIS IS A DUPLICATE.  THANK YOU.  JENNIFER 
 

 

SPECIAL LECTURE

 

Martina Marzia, PhD

Assistant Professor

Department of Psychiatry

University of Ottawa

 

Interaction between Dopamine & NMDA receptor 

in the Amygdala

 

Wednesday January 16, 2008

 

4:00 pm

 

W201-Killam Conference Room <http://neuromedia.mcgill.ca/mnibooking/week.php?year=2008&month=01&day=16&area=7&room=1> 

 

 

 

Abstract of the talk: The baso-lateral amygdala (BLA) plays an important role in cognitive and emotional processes. Glutamatergic and dopaminergic afferents to the lateral nucleus (LA) of the BLA regulate amygdala activity through cellular mechanisms that are not well understood. We investigated the effect of dopamine (DA) receptor activation on glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) currents in LA projection neurons in amygdala slices. We found that DA reduces NMDAR currents in an additive manner through the activation of both D1-like and D2-like receptors. The reduction of NMDAR currents by D1-like receptor activation is mediated by a protein-protein interaction between the D1R and the NMDAR, while the regulation of NMDAR activity by D2-like receptors is elicited through a G-protein-dependent pathway controlled by D4R. Our study shows for the first time a functional interplay between D1R and D4R that mediates coincident G-protein-independent and dependent regulation of NMDARs, a cellular process potentially compromised in neuropsychiatric disorders.

 

 

Dr. Marzia Martina obtained her Ph.D. in Human Physiology in 1999 at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy) working on the modulatory effects of dopamine on high voltage activated (HVA) calcium channels in sensory neurones. Between 1999 and 2001, Dr. Martina completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Denis Paré at the Department of Physiology, Laval University, in Québec City where she studied the physiological and networking properties of central and intercalated neurons in the amygdala. During that time, she also investigated the propagation of neocortical inputs in the perirhinal cortex. Since 2001, she has been working mainly in collaboration with Dr. Richard Bergeron at the Ottawa Health Research Institute first as the recipient of a postdoctoral fellowship from the Canadian Institute for Health Research before being appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Ottawa in July 2006. Her work focuses on the electrophysiological effects of D-amino acids on NMDA receptors, the mechanism regulating the release of D-amino acids as well as their implication in synaptic transmission and plasticity in the hippocampus.

 

 

 

 

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