REVIEW ARTICLE published: 11 June 2014 SYSTEMS NEUROSCIENCE doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00110 Hemispheric differences in the mesostriatal dopaminergic system Ilana Molochnikov and Dana Cohen* The Leslie and Susan Gonda Multidisciplinary Brain Research Center, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel Edited by: The mesostriatal dopaminergic system, which comprises the mesolimbic and the Ahmed A. Moustafa, University of nigrostriatal pathways, plays a major role in neural processing underlying motor and limbic Western Sydney, Australia functions. Multiple reports suggest that these processes are influenced by hemispheric Reviewed by: differences in striatal dopamine (DA) levels, DA turnover and its receptor activity. Here, Rachel Tomer, University of Haifa, Israel we review studies which measured the concentration of DA and its metabolites to Reuben Ruby Shamir, Case Western examine the relationship between DA imbalance and animal behavior under different Reserve University, USA conditions. Specifically, we assess evidence in support of endogenous, inter-hemispheric *Correspondence: DA imbalance; determine whether the known anatomy provides a suitable substrate for Dana Cohen, The Gonda Brain this imbalance; examine the relationship between DA imbalance and animal behavior; and Research Center, Bar Ilan University, Building number 901, Ramat Gan characterize the symmetry of the observed inter-hemispheric laterality in the nigrostriatal 52900, Israel and the mesolimbic DA systems. We conclude that many studies provide supporting e-mail:
[email protected] evidence for the occurrence of experience-dependent endogenous DA imbalance which is controlled by a dedicated regulatory/compensatory mechanism. Additionally, it seems that the link between DA imbalance and animal behavior is better characterized in the nigrostriatal than in the mesolimbic system.