Daniel Cardozo Pinto
@dcardozopinto
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Neuroscientist & Harvard Junior Fellow | Stanford PhD '23, Malenka lab | UC Berkeley BA '17, Lammel lab
Joined May 2018
My paper is out!! 🎉 . "Opponent control of reinforcement by striatal dopamine and serotonin", @Nature. Here, we show that dopamine and serotonin signals form a gas-brake system for reward in the mammalian brain 🧠 . THREAD ⬇️. 1/n
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If anyone here is using Doric's new FluoPulse system for fluorescence lifetime photometry, can you please get in touch? Would love to hear about your experience with the product. Thanks!.
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RT @MCB_Harvard: Daniel Cardozo Pinto: Decoding the Neural Circuitry of Reward Learning @dcardozopinto @NeirEshel @harvardbrainsci @Harvard….
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RT @dr_benrein: HUGE NEWS. I WROTE A BOOK!!! 🎉📖. I can’t believe I finally get to share this with you. I poured everything I had into thi….
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Special thanks Michaela Guo who co-led this project as an undergrad/RA and is now MD-PhD bound! I was lucky to work with her and can't wait to see what she does next. And thank you to the rest of the team: Wade Morishita, Matt Pomrenze, Neir Eshel, and Rob Malenka. 8/n.
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We think this provides one putative mechanism to explain longstanding observations of serotonin counteracting dopamine's rewarding effects. Our work also provides a characterization of the mesolimbic serotonin system that we hope will be resource for the field. 7/n
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Finally we tested this in vivo. We used DAT (bup) and SERT (esc) blockers to upregulate dopamine or serotonin and labeled cfos as a proxy for neural activity. ‼️ Enhancing dopamine activity preferentially activated D1-MSNs while enhancing serotonin activated D2-MSNs. 6/n
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This suggested serotonin may differentially modulate D1 and D2 MSN activity in a manner opposite to their regulation by dopamine. To test this, we performed acute slice recordings. ⬆️⬇️ Dopamine selectively excited D1-MSNs while serotonin selectively activated D2-MSNs. 5/n
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Next we used RNAscope to map the their distribution. 📊 expression varied across subregions and cell-types for every gene examined. ❗️ Overall though, D1-MSNs expressed a mix of Gi, Gs, and Gq coupled receptors while D2-MSNs were enriched for Gq coupled 5HT2 receptors. 4/n
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To answer this question, we first determined which serotonin receptors are expressed on striatal MSNs. 🎯 Mining a scRNA-Seq dataset revealed that >90% of MSNs express serotonin receptors, and that this is primarily limited to a subset of ~8 receptor genes. 3/n
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📚 It's known that dopamine drives reinforcement via differential modulation of D1 and D2 MSNs, and last year we showed serotonin counteracts dopamine's reinforcing effects. This inspired us to ask:. ❓How does serotonin affect striatal neuron activity?. 2/n
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New preprint! 🧠. Here, we mapped serotonin receptor expression in striatum and showed serotonin modulates MSNs in a manner ~opposite to their regulation by dopamine. Co-led w/Michaela Guo. 🧵⬇️.
biorxiv.org
Classic theories propose opponent functions for striatal dopamine (DA) and serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5HT), with DA promoting approach and 5HT promoting patience or avoidance. How these neurom...
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Thrilled to share that I've been elected to the Harvard Society of Fellows!. I will collaborate with Nao Uchida on a new direction studying neural mechanisms of addiction. It's such a privilege to pursue curiosity driven science in this environment - very excited and so grateful.
MCB’s Daniel Cardozo Pinto and Wendy Valencia Montoya Named 2025 Harvard Junior Fellows @RachelleGaudet @dcardozopinto @rnett42 @NBellono @MarmolJosefina @NaomiPierceMCZ @HarvardGSAS @Harvard @HarvardOEB
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Thanks to @avaskham at @_TheTransmitter for this coverage of our recent work!.
Mice learn best when the opponent opposing forces of dopamine and serotonin work together, a new study shows, helping to resolve long-standing questions about the neuromodulators’ relationship. By @avaskham .
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RT @MassalyNiko: WEEK #48 . Paper of the week by @dcardozopinto in Dr Malenka‘s lab : LP of the week : Motorama….
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Thanks to Nick Weiler @StanfordBrain for the very nice write up on our work!.
neuroscience.stanford.edu
New research from the Malenka lab reveals that reward-based learning requires the two neuromodulators to balance one another's influence.
In sum:. 🏁 We uncover a long hypothesized opponent relationship between dopamine & serotonin, and we show that this opponency controls reward and reinforcement. LINK: 9/n.
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RT @StanfordBrain: Dopamine and serotonin work together in opposite ways, like the accelerator and the brakes on a car, to help the brain l….
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