How does dopamine signalling affect glutamate release?

Glutamate is the brain's most prevalent excitatory neurotransmitter, while Dopamine is widely known as a special kind of neurotransmitter known as "regulatory" or "modulatory". read more

For example, glutamate regulates dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, which is the reward system in the brain. It does so with another neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neuromodulator that - in this case- prevents entry into addition. read more

Finally, the increase in the extracellular levels of dopamine induced by caffeine and the A1 receptor antagonist could be related to their effects on extracellular glutamate, in view of the evidence for a facilitatory role of glutamate on striatal dopamine release (Morari et al., 1998). read more

The anticipation of most types of rewards increases the level of dopamine in the brain, and many addictive drugs increase dopamine release or block its reuptake into neurons following release. Other brain dopamine pathways are involved in motor control and in controlling the release of various hormones. read more