TALKEETNA, Al. (KTUU) - A cat named Stubbs has been the mayor of Talkeetna, Alaska for nearly all of his life. It's been that way for more than a decade in the small tourist town that boasts nearly 900 residents.
DAT is an integral membrane protein that removes dopamine from the synaptic cleft and deposits it into surrounding cells, thus terminating the signal of the neurotransmitter. Dopamine underlies several aspects of cognition, including reward, and DAT facilitates regulation of that signal.
So how does dopamine act on the indirect pathway? Dopamine is secreted by the substantia nigra and binds to D2 receptors (these are different than the D1 receptors of the direct pathway) in the striatum.This causes striatal neurons to decrease their inhibitory message to the external segment of the globus pallidus.his is different from the direct pathway where the striatum sends a signal to the internal segment of the globus pallidus. The external segment of the globus pallidus normally indirectly (more on this in the next few paragraphs) inhibits its internal counterpart.