Midbrain GABAergic neurons control several aspects of behavior, but regulation of their development and diversity is poorly understood. Here, we further refine the midbrain regions active in GABAergic neurogenesis and show their correlation with the expression of the transcription factor Gata2. Using tissue-specific inactivation and ectopic expression, we show that Gata2 regulates GABAergic neu...

Recent physiological, pharmacological and anatomical studies provide evidence that one of the main roles of the endocannabinoid system in the brain is the regulation of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate release. This article aims to review this evidence in the context of its implications for pain. We first provide a brief overview of supraspinal regulation of nociception, followed by...

BACKGROUND The gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) hypothesis in essential tremor (ET) implies a disturbance of the GABAergic system, especially involving the cerebellum. This review examines the evidence of the GABA hypothesis. METHODS The review is based on published data about GABA dysfunction in ET, taking into account studies on cerebrospinal fluid, pathology, electrophysiology, genetics, neu...

The neural control of heart rate is determined primarily by the activity of preganglionic parasympathetic cardiac vagal neurons (CVNs) originating in the nucleus ambiguus (NA) in the brain stem. GABAergic inputs to CVNs play an essential role in determining the activity of these neurons including a robust inhibition during each inspiratory burst. The origin of GABAergic innervation has yet to b...

Clinical studies have shown that Selank had an anxiolytic effect comparable to that of classical benzodiazepine drugs, which can enhance the inhibitory effect of GABA by allosteric modulation of GABAA receptors. These data suggest that the molecular mechanism of the effect of Selank may also be related to its ability to affect the performance of the GABAergic system. To test this hypothesis, we...

Schizophrenia is a complex disorder that affects cognitive function and has been linked, both in patients and animal models, to dysfunction of the GABAergic system. However, the pathophysiological consequences of this dysfunction are not well understood. Here, we examined the GABAergic system in an animal model displaying schizophrenia-relevant features, the apomorphine-susceptible (APO-SUS) ra...

Normal brain function depends on an interplay between glutamatergic and GABAergic synaptic transmission, yet questions remain about the biophysical differences between these two classes of synapse. By taking advantage of a simple culture system, we present here a detailed comparison of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission under identical conditions using the variance-mean (V-M) method of...

The "glutamatergic" granule cells of the dentate gyrus transiently express a GABAergic phenotype when a state of hyperexcitability is induced in the adult rat. Consequently, granule cell (GC) activation provokes monosynaptic GABAergic responses in their targets of area CA3. Because GABA exerts a trophic action on neonatal CA3 and mossy fibers (MF) constitute its main input, we hypothesized that...

Neuroligin 2 is a postsynaptic protein that plays a critical role in the maturation and proper function of GABAergic synapses. Previous studies demonstrated that deletion of neuroligin 2 impaired GABAergic synaptic transmission, whereas its overexpression caused increased inhibition, which suggest that its presence strongly influences synaptic function. Interestingly, the overexpressing transge...

We have studied the effects of GABAergic innervation on the clustering of GABA(A) receptors (GABA(A)Rs) in cultured hippocampal neurons. In the absence of GABAergic innervation, pyramidal cells form small (0.36 +/- 0.01 micrometer diameter) GABA(A)R clusters at their surface in the dendrites and soma. When receiving GABAergic innervation from glutamic acid decarboxylase-containing interneurons,...