Table 1.

Pharmacological and physiological perturbations on DA system during postnatal development

Perturbation	Age	Species	Cellular-level changes	Brain region	Electrophysiological changes	Behavioral consequences	Reference (s)
Amphetamine	PND22–31	Mouse	↑ in the expanse of DA innervation in adult mice ↓ density and total number of varicosities in adult mice	mPFC	N/A	↑ Conditioned locomotor activity (contextual salience attribution)	Reynolds et al., 2015
Low dose of Amphetamine	PND22–31	Mouse	No effect on DA innervation (in contrast with higher doses)	mPFC	N/A	Improved cognitive performance on go/no-go task	Cuesta et al., 2019
Amphetamine	PND22–31	Mouse	↓ dopamine varicosities in adult mice	oPFC	N/A	N/A	Hoops et al., 2018
Quinpirole and bromocriptine	PND21	Mouse	↓ spine density	HPC	N/A	N/A	Jia et al., 2013
6-OHDA	PND3–5	Rat	↑ 5-HT innervation	striatum	N/A	Spontaneous hyperactivity	Luthman et al., 1987; Stachowiak et al., 1984; Towle et al., 1989
6-OHDA	PND5	Rat	↓ 5-HT innervation	PFC	N/A	N/A	Cunningham et al., 2005
Methylphenidate	PND20–35	Rat	N/A	N/A	N/A	Aversion to cocaine-paired side	Andersen et al., 2002; Brenhouse et al., 2009
Methylphenidate	PND28–48	Rat	N/A	N/A	N/A	↑ cocaine self-administration	Brandon et al., 2001; Baskin et al., 2015
Methylphenidate	PND30–44	Mouse and rat	↓ synaptic active zone length ↑ spine density	PFC	N/A	Preference for a small and certain reward over a large and uncertain on a 2-choice operant behavior test	Kim et al., 2009; Cavaliere et al., 2012
Cocaine	PND28–39	Mouse and rat	N/A	N/A	N/A	↑ locomotor sensitization and drug seeking	Badanich & Kirstein, 2012; Valzachi et al., 2013
Cocaine	PND28–46	Mouse and rat	Enlarged dendritic spine head size; ↓ synapses; ↓ dendritic spine density	PFC	N/A	↑ perseverative errors; ↑ delay discounting; inability to develop contextual fear responses; ↑ anxiety-like behavior; ↑ habit-based behavior	Sillivan et al., 2011; Pope et al., 2016; DePoy et al., 2014; Zhu et al., 2018
Cocaine	PND28–42	Rat	Altered neuronal morphology; ↑ Astrocyte activity; ↓ neurogenesis	HPC	N/A	↑ anxiety-like behavior	Zhu et al., 2016; Garcia-Foster et al., 2017
Apomorphine	PND38–51	Rat	N/A	N/A	N/A	Impaired latent inhibition	Shao et al., 2010
L-Dopa	PND1–5	Mouse	Increased DA and DOPAC tissue content	Striatum	N/A	Hyperactivity in juvenile females, ↓ total liquid consumption and sucrose preference in males	De Matos et al., 2018
Phasic optical stimulation of VTA during adolescence	PND28–42	Mouse	↑ Formation of mesofrontal axonal varicosities adolescence	Frontal cortex	↑ Total LFP response, increased response duration, high frequency oscillations (4–55Hz)	Suppressed novelty induced and psychomotor activity following prior phasic stimulation	Mastwal et al., 2014

Abbreviations: DA, dopamine; PND, postnatal day; N/A, not assessed; mPFC, medial prefrontal cortex; oPFC, orbito prefrontal cortex; HPC, hippocampus; PFC, prefrontal cortex; VTA, ventral tegmental area; LFP, local field potential.