Haixin Liu, Riccardo Melani, Marta Maltese, James Taniguchi, Akhila Sankaramanchi, Ruoheng Zeng, Jenna R. Martin, Nicolas X. Tritsch
Dopamine (DA) is essential for the production of vigorous actions, but how DA modifies the gain of motor commands remains unclear. Here we show that subsecond DA transients in the striatum of mice are neither required nor sufficient for specifying the vigor of ongoing forelimb movements. Our findings have important implications for our understanding of how DA contributes to motor control under physiological conditions and in Parkinson's disease.