Study reveals a skin-to-brain neural circuit that responds to rewarding forms of social touch. Researchers say the findings could provide an avenue for harnessing the power of touch to assist in treating social and emotional disorders.
Glutamate neurons in the ventral tegmental area play a key role in the underlying impact of stressors. Silencing the neurons made the brain more resilient to stress.
Study reveals the mechanism of the nucleus accumbens for mediating reward and aversion.
Greater impairment of the prefrontal cortex-habenula pathway was correlated with earlier age of first drug use.
Study reveals the lateral habenula plays a critical role in the priming of aggression in male mice.
Researchers identified 16 distinct cell populations in the ventral tegmental area, a brain area involved in dopamine neurotransmission involved in reward-directed behaviors.
A ventral tegmental area dopamine neuron circuit that projects to the basolateral amygdala selectively controls anxiety-like behaviors, but not depression-like behaviors.
The motivation to exert sustained effort to achieve a goal following stress exposure depends on an individual's level of trait anxiety. The expression of CRHR1 in dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area connects anxiety to either boosted or diminished motivation levels.
The motivation to invest in social interactions is closely linked to the reward system via the activation of dopaminergic neurons.
Researchers have identified a new reward system in the brain. The study found long-range GABA neurons from the ventral tegmental area to the ventral nucleus accumbens shell are engaged in reward and reinforcement behaviors. This GABAergic projection inhibits cholinergic interneurons.
Study reveals how dopamine may have a central role in maintaining our consciousness.
Study reveals the role the ventral tegmental area of the brain plays in craving protein-rich foods.
