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ventral tegmental area

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·June 27, 2018·4 min read

Dopamine’s Role in Unlearning Fearful Association

Researchers report dopamine neurons may play a role in fear extinction. The study suggests targeting dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area could be of therapeutic benefit to reduce the impact of learned fear in PTSD and anxiety disorders.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·June 26, 2018·3 min read

How Your Brain Decides Between Knowledge and Ignorance

Researchers report the brain's reward network could play an influential role in evaluating the opportunity to gain new information, just as it does to evaluate rewards such as food or financial gain.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·June 18, 2018·4 min read

Rare Genetic Mutation May Give Insight into How the Brain is Wired

A family with a rare genetic mutation are helping researchers answer important questions about how the human brain is wired. The family, who share an altered copy of the DCC gene, have less connectivity between areas where dopamine neurons originate and their target sites.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 13, 2018·3 min read

Neural Circuit Mechanisms of Emotion Identified

Researchers shed light on the mechanisms behind the anxiolytic CRH circuit in the ventral tegmental area of the brain.

Featured Neurology

·March 27, 2018·4 min read

Detecting Diminishing Dopamine Firing Cells in Brain Could Reveal Earliest Signs of Alzheimer’s

According to researchers, if the ventral tegmental area is unable to produce the correct amount of dopamine for the hippocampus, it will not work efficiently and the impairment can result in dementia.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·March 2, 2018·5 min read

In Pursuit of Pleasure, the Brain Learns to Hit the Repeat Button

According to researchers, the brain learns to reproduce brain activity patterns that lead to reward. The findings could lead to new avenues for treating addiction and OCD, researchers report.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 27, 2017·5 min read

How the Brain Selectively Remembers New Places

MIT researchers have identified a brain network that allows the brain to record memories of new places.

Autism Featured Neuroscience

·December 8, 2017·5 min read

Hope for Autism: Optogenetics Shines Light on Social Interactions

Optogenetics helps researchers discover how social behavior and spatial learning are linked in autism.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·November 10, 2017·3 min read

Discovery Could Lead to New Treatments for Addiction and Anxiety

Researchers have identified a specific network in the brain that appears to be associated with risk and reward assessment.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·November 7, 2017·6 min read

Higher Estrogen Levels Linked to Increased Alcohol Sensitivity in Brain’s Reward Center

Neurons in the ventral tegmental area, an area of the brain considered to be the reward center, fire more rapidly to alcohol when estrogen levels are elevated, a new study reports. The study may shed light on how alcohol addiction develops in some women.