Dopamine, first synthesized and tested in 1910, was formally renamed by Sir Henry Dale about 40 years later. Around the same time, studies on the mechanisms of the first-generation of antipsychiatric drugs, pioneered by Arvid Carlsson, identified dopamine as a neurotransmitter playing a role in motor and mental functions. In parallel, Oleh Hornykiewicz and others found that dopamine plays a critical role in movement regulation in Parkinson disease. Finally, while studying the mechanisms of slow neurotransmission, Paul Greengard and others revealed how dopamine acts on dopamine receptors, activates downstream signalling pathways, and modulates neuronal activity and synaptic plasticity.

Tremendous progress has been made in understanding the role of the “feel-good” neurotransmitter in the central nervous system in health and diseases. However, it is still largely unknown on the precise mechanisms and locations along the axons and dendrites that dopamine is released, the structure and organization of dopamine receptors, dopaminergic neuron subpopulations, their projections and regulations, the role of glial cells in shaping dopamine functions, the patterns of dopamine release at a single synapse, and across large brain areas, and the time scale of dopamine modulation on intrinsic neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity.

Emerging new techniques, methods, and tools, such as super-resolution and multiphoton microscopy, in vivo imaging in behaving animals, optogenetics, chemogenetics, CRISPR gene editing, fluorescent dopamine sensors, molecular imaging such as quantitative autoradiography and positron emission tomography, cryo-EM, single-cell RNA sequencing, and multi-omics, have already permitted advances and are expected to improve our understanding of dopamine and its receptor system and facilitate the development of novel pharmaceutical interventions for a variety CNS disorders.

This Research Topic encourages submissions and discussions of a wide range of original research, method, hypothesis, and review articles focused on, but not limited to:

1. Dopamine release machinery, axonal and dendritic dopamine release, action potential-driven and local modulation of dopamine release, dopamine release upon various stimulations

2. Dopamine receptor subtypes, neuroimaging, structure-function, regional distributions, organization, and pharmaceuticals

3. Dopamine, enzymes, transporter, and receptor system in disease progression

4. Single nucleus/cell RNAseq, multi-omic analyses, and intersection genetic classification of dopaminergic cell populations, their circuit connections and functions.

5. Dopamine modulation of ion channels and neurotransmitter receptors, leading to changes in intrinsic neuronal excitability and synaptic plasticity

6. Dopamine modulation of homeostatic needs (feeding, etc.), sensations (pain, etc.), and emotions (aggression, reproduction, and other social behaviors)

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Frontiers in Synaptic Neuroscience

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