The Role of NMDA Currents in State Transitions of the Nucleus Accumbens Medium Spiny Neuron

The nucleus accumbens (NAcb) integrates information from a wide range of glutamatergic afferent inputs, including the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. One of the glutamatergic receptors, the NMDA channel, has been implicated in the non-linearity of the current–voltage relationship in these cells under certain input conditions. In order to examine the relationship of the different glutamatergic receptors to the membrane response, we modeled the AMPA, GABAA and NMDA receptors in the medium spiny (MSP) cells and their afferent input. The model demonstrates that the NMDA current is capable of sustaining certain membrane states and contributes to the non-linearity of the membrane response to input.