Dopamine (DA) is an important neurotransmitter secreted from dopamine neurons.In the CNS, together with its receptors in striatum, prefrontal cortex, amygdale and many other areas, dopamine acts as a key modulator responsible for essential physiological behaviors including mood, awarding, and movement, and for major mental disorders including neurodegenerative Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, Huntingtons disease, depression mode, and drug addiction.It is well established that dopamine is released from dopaminergic terminals.However, whether and timing of dopamine release from the somata of dopamine neurons in substantial nigra pars compacta (SNc) remains elusive.Here we show, for first time, the Ca2+ dependent somatic dopamine release from single vesicles in SNc brain slices.In average, 7.8× 104 dopamine molecules is released per quantum, which are 2.9% of the contents released from single large dense core vesicle (LDCV) in chromaffin cell.Surprisingly, comparing to its terminal release in striatum, the latency of the evoked somatic dopamine release is substantially slower in the somata in SNc vs.terminals in striatum.