Dopamine’s Yin-Yang Personality: It’s an Upper and a Downer
Researchers shed light on the dual nature of dopamine, as a neurotransmitter that makes us seek pleasure and also reinforces avoidance of pain.... Read More...
VTA
Dopamine Primes the Brain for Enhanced Vigilance
Researchers have identified a brain network that may control the diversion of attention to focus on potential threats. Dopamine, they report, is key to the process.... Read More...
Dopamine Drives Early Addiction to Heroin
Researchers have identified a significant role dopamine plays in the development of heroin addiction. The study reports dopamine appears to directly cause drug reinforcement and, when dopamine neurons are silenced, mice are less likely to self administer the drug.... Read More...
New Target of Alcohol in the Brain Identified
Researchers have identified a new target of alcohol in the brain. A new study reveals alcohol blocks the KCNK13 potassium channel within the membrane of dopamine releasing neurons in the ventral tegmental area.... Read More...
How Cues Drive Our Behavior
Researchers shed light on the role dopamine neurons play in assigning values to transient environmental cues that drive behaviors. ... Read More...
Maged1 Gene Protects Against Cocaine Addiction
A new study reports mice lacking the Maged1 gene are unable to acquire an addiction to cocaine.... Read More...
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.... Read More...
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.... Read More...
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.... Read More...
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.... Read More...
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.... Read More...
How the Brain Selectively Remembers New Places
MIT researchers have identified a brain network that allows the brain to record memories of new places.... Read More...