Synaptic and non-synaptic striatal dopamine D2 receptors: possible implications in normal and pathological behaviour

Various levels of organisation in the central nervous system can be distinguished, ranging from the molecular, the cellular, the multicellular and the neuronal system level. The relationship between receptor function and behaviour is focussed to the dopamine D2 type receptor of the striatal complex in relation to extrapyramidal and limbic systems. In the striatal complex a striosomal and a matrix compartment can be distinguished. The matrix compartment can be considered as a part of the extrapyramidal system and is innervated by the motor cortex and by the dopaminergic neurons of the ventral tegmental, the dorsal substantia nigra and the retrorubral area. This compartment has a relatively high density of D2 receptors. The striosomes are innervated by e.g. the prelimbic cortex and dopamine neurones of the ventral part of the substantia nigra; here the density of D2 receptors are lower. Under normal conditions most of the D2 receptors are occupied by endogenous dopamine, and postsynaptic (e.g. cholinergic) function is therefore sensitive to antagonists; e.g. antipsychotics. Exposure to drugs such as amphetamine produces a substantial overflow of dopamine from nerve terminals leading to the activation of remote dopamine receptors, that may belong to the system that normally is not influenced by these nerve terminals (defined here as extra synaptic receptor activation). A loss of the normal spatial-temporal relationships may also occur during L-DOPA therapy in Parkinson's disease. In this illness, due to degeneration of dopaminergic innervation, several dopamine receptors have become non-synaptic. In these states of intoxication the normal spatial/temporal organization is lost and such a loss may contribute to behavioural impairments.