= Dopaminergic neuron
= Dopamine neuron
{synonym}
A <dopaminergic neuron> is a <neuron> that uses <dopamine> as a <neurotransmitter>. The term identifies a chemical signalling property, not a unique shape, firing pattern or psychological experience. A receiving cell's <dopamine receptor> is different from the <dopaminergic neuron> that supplies its ligand.
A motivating experiment recorded dopamine-neuron activity while monkeys learned a delayed-response task. A 1993 study found phasic responses to liquid-reward delivery in $25\%$ of $76$ neurons during learning, compared with $9\%$ of $163$ after task performance was established. Instruction and trigger cues also evoked responses.<Responses of monkey dopamine neurons to reward and conditioned stimuli during successive steps of learning a delayed response task by Wolfram Schultz and others>[Abstract; learning versus established performance, reward and conditioned cues]{ref} These are comparisons of reported samples, not proof that the identical neurons were tracked through both populations.
The outcome shows why neurotransmitter identity does not determine a response to every event. Timing, learning and task context matter. Nor does a brief change in <action potential> frequency directly measure the amount of <dopamine> released at every terminal. Interpreting a recorded cell as a <dopaminergic neuron> requires an identification method, and evidence from one sampled population should not be generalized to all such <neurons>.
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