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The relationship between prefrontal cortex gray matter volume and subcortical dopamine release - an addendum

Molecular Psychiatry (2024)Cite this article

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In their article on the relationship between glutamate, dopamine, and cortical gray matter volume, Rogeau et al. [1] report an inverse relationship between gray matter volumetric measures in the left inferior frontal gyrus and amphetamine-induced dopamine release in the striatum. Dopamine release was estimated on the basis of changes in binding of the positron emission tomography (PET) dopamine D2/3 receptor agonist radioligand [11C]-(+)-PHNO [2] after administration of amphetamine or placebo capsules. Binding of [11C]-(+)-PHNO is sensitive towards pharmacological challenges affecting dopamine release and provides a semi-quantitative index of changes in extracellular dopamine levels [3, 4].

In good agreement with previous studies in rodents [5] and humans [6], the findings of Rogeau et al. provide support for a major role of the prefrontal cortex in regulating dopamine signaling in the striatum. However, Rogeau et al. did not observe any relationship between frontal cortex volumetric parameters and dopamine signaling in the substantia nigra or ventral tegmental area. These midbrain nuclei form the main origin of dopaminergic innervation in the brain and are known to form a crucial relay station in frontal cortex-dopamine interactions [5]. The question thus arises: Why did these regions fail to show up in the Rogeau et al. data?

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Fig. 1

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Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Neil Vasdev, PhD and Prof. Sylvain Houle, PhD (Brain Health Imaging Centre, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON), and Prof. Shitij Kapur, PhD (King’s College, London, GB) for making available to us the data shown in Fig. 1. This research was funded in part by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF; grant P23585-B09). For open access purposes, the author has applied a CC BY public copyright license to any author accepted manuscript version arising from this submission.

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  1. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Division of General Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Matthäus Willeit, Ulrich Sauerzopf, Nicole Praschak-Rieder & Ana Weidenauer

  2. Comprehensive Center for Clinical Neurosciences and Mental Health, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    Matthäus Willeit, Ulrich Sauerzopf, Nicole Praschak-Rieder & Ana Weidenauer

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  1. Matthäus Willeit
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Contributions

MW drafted the manuscript. US, NPR and AW contributed intellectually and critically revised the manuscript. MW participated in collecting and analyzed the data shown in Fig. 1. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Matthäus Willeit.

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Without relevance to this work, MW declares to having received speaker honoraria and consulting fees from Janssen-Cilag Pharma GmbH, Austria. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Willeit, M., Sauerzopf, U., Praschak-Rieder, N. et al. The relationship between prefrontal cortex gray matter volume and subcortical dopamine release - an addendum. Mol Psychiatry (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41380-024-02536-2

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