Striatal dopaminergic dysregulation in schizophrenia could result from a prefronto-striatal dysconnectivity, of neurodevelopmental origin, involving N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. The dorsomedian shell part of the nucleus accumbens is a striatal subregion of particular interest inasmuch as it has been described as the common target region for antipsychotics. Moreover, NMDA receptors located on the dopaminergic endings have been reported in the shell. The present study examines in adult rats the effects of early functional inactivation of the left prefrontal cortex on behavioral and dopaminergic responses in the dorsomedian shell part of the nucleus accumbens following administration of two noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonists, ketamine, and dizocilpine (MK-801). The results showed that postnatal blockade of the prefrontal cortex led to increased locomotor activity as well as increased extracellular dopamine levels in the dorsomedian shell following administration of both noncompetitive NMDA receptor antagonists, and, more markedly, after treatment with the more specific one, MK-801, whereas decreased dopaminergic levels were observed in respective controls. These data suggest a link between NMDA receptor dysfunctioning and dopamine dysregulation at the level of the dorsomedian shell part of the nucleus accumbens. They may help to understand the pathophysiology of schizophrenia in a neurodevelopmental perspective.

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Astronomers are nowadays required by their funding agencies to make the data obtained through public-financed means (ground and space observatories and labs) available to the public and the community at large. This is a fundamental step in enabling the open science paradigm the astronomical community is striving for. In other words, tabular data (catalogs) arriving to CDS for ingestion into its databases, in particular VizieR, is more and more frequently accompanied by the reduced observed dataset (spectra, images, data cubes, time series). While the benefits of making this associated data available are obvious, the task is very challenging: in this context "big data" takes the meaning of "extremely heterogeneous data", with a diversity of formats and practices among astronomers, even within the FITS standard. Providing librarians with efficient tools to index this data and generate the relevant metadata is therefore paramount.