In the Lab Faculty Winner: Dopamine and Serotonin Neural Projections Reaching the Brain Cortex

Photo by Lorena Bianchine Areal, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine

Neurons that produce serotonin and dopamine are located in a region called midbrain, but can communicate with different parts of the brain through these elaborate projections, also known as axons, that travel long distances. These neurons project widely throughout the brain to control several functions including mood, sleep, movement, memory, reward and motivation. Pictured in green are serotonin projections, in magenta are dopamine projections, and in blue are nuclei of brain cells, in a mouse brain cortex‚ which is the outer layer of the brain. Images were acquired using a confocal microscope after labelling the dopamine and serotonin neurons with antibodies conjugated with fluorescent dyes.