Dopamine D1-like and D2-like receptors in the dorsal striatum control different aspects of attentional performance in the five-choice serial reaction time task under a condition of increased activity of corticostriatal inputs

We investigated the interaction between the corticostriatal glutamatergic afferents and dopamine D₁-like and D₂-like receptors in the dorsomedial striatum (dm-STR) in attention and executive response control in the five-choice serial reaction time (5-CSRT) task. The competitive NMDA receptor antagonist 3-(R)-2-carboxypiperazin-4-propyl-1-phosphonic acid (CPP) injected in the mPFC impaired accuracy and increased premature and perseverative responding, raising GLU, DA, and GABA release in the dm-STR. The D ₁-like antagonist SCH23390 injected in the dm-STR reversed the CPP-induced accuracy deficit but did not affect the increase in perseverative responding. In contrast, the D₂-like antagonist haloperidol injected in the dm-STR reduced the CPP-induced increase in perseverative responding but not the accuracy deficit. The different roles of dorsal striatal D ₁-like and D₂-like receptor were further supported by the finding that activation of D₁-like receptor in the dm-STR by SKF38393 impaired accuracy but not perseverative responding while the D₂-like agonist quinpirole injected in the dm-STR increased perseverative responding but did not affect accuracy. These findings suggest that integration of cortical information by D₁-like receptors in the dm-STR is a key mechanism of the input selection process of attention while the integration of corticostriatal signals by D₂-like receptors preserves the ability to switch from one act/response to the next in a complex motor sequence, thus providing for behavioral flexibility.