Dopamine regulates the activity of neural networks in the prefrontal cortex
that process working memory information, but its precise biophysical actio
ns are poorly understood. The present study characterized the effects of do
pamine on GABAergic inputs to prefrontal pyramidal neurons using whole- cel
l patch-clamp recordings in vitro. In most pyramidal cells, dopamine had a
temporally biphasic effect on evoked IPSCs, producing an initial abrupt dec
rease in amplitude followed by a delayed increase in IPSC amplitude. Using
receptor subtype- specific agonists and antagonists, we found that the init
ial abrupt reduction was D2 receptor- mediated, whereas the late, slower de
veloping enhancement was D1 receptor- mediated. Linearly combining the effe
cts of the two agonists could reproduce the biphasic dopamine effect. Becau
se D1 agonists enhanced spontaneous (sIPSCs) but did not affect miniature (
mIPSCs) IPSCs, it appears that D1 agonists caused larger evoked IPSCs by in
creasing the intrinsic excitability of interneurons and their axons. In con
trast, D2 agonists had no effects on sIPSCs but did produce a significant r
eduction in mIPSCs, suggestive of a decrease in GABA release probability. I
n addition, D2 agonists reduced the postsynaptic response to a GABA(A) agon
ist. D1 and D2 receptors therefore regulated GABAergic activity in opposite
manners and through different mechanisms in prefrontal cortex (PFC) pyrami
dal cells. This bidirectional modulation could have important implications
for the computational properties of active PFC networks.