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VTA

·June 6, 2025·5 min read

Brain’s Reward Center Tracks Not Just What, But When Rewards Arrive

The brain’s ventral tegmental area (VTA) encodes not only the value of anticipated rewards but also the precise timing of when those rewards are expected. Long known for its role in producing dopamine and guiding reward prediction, the VTA is now shown to process reward expectations on multiple time scales.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·May 22, 2025·7 min read

Potassium Channel Drug Offers New Hope for Treating Depression

Two new studies reveal that ezogabine, a drug originally approved for epilepsy, may alleviate depression symptoms by targeting potassium channels in the brain. Researchers found that the drug improves function in reward-related brain regions like the ventral tegmental area (VTA), which is key to motivation and pleasure.

Featured Neuroscience

·January 23, 2023·8 min read

Origins of Pleasurable Touch Traced From Skin to Brain

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.

Featured Neuroscience

·December 2, 2022·5 min read

Key Brain Cells in Mice Underlying Stress-Related Behaviors Identified

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.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·November 15, 2022·3 min read

How the Nucleus Accumbens Mediates Positive and Negative Motivational Valence

Study reveals the mechanism of the nucleus accumbens for mediating reward and aversion.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·October 8, 2022·4 min read

Human Cocaine and Heroin Addiction Is Found Tied to Impairments in Specific Brain Circuit Initially Implicated in Animals

Greater impairment of the prefrontal cortex-habenula pathway was correlated with earlier age of first drug use.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·July 22, 2022·3 min read

Making Sense of Socially Enhanced Aggression in the Brain

Study reveals the lateral habenula plays a critical role in the priming of aggression in male mice.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 16, 2022·5 min read

A Key Brain Region for Substance Use Disorders Now Has a Searchable Atlas of Distinct Cell Populations

Researchers identified 16 distinct cell populations in the ventral tegmental area, a brain area involved in dopamine neurotransmission involved in reward-directed behaviors.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·April 3, 2022·4 min read

Midbrain Projection to the Basolateral Amygdala Encodes Anxiety-Like Behaviors

A ventral tegmental area dopamine neuron circuit that projects to the basolateral amygdala selectively controls anxiety-like behaviors, but not depression-like behaviors.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles Psychology

·March 23, 2022·5 min read

Motivation to Achieve Goals May Depend on Anxiety Level

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.

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Featured Neuroscience

·December 2, 2021·4 min read

Tracking the Neurons That Make Us Social

The motivation to invest in social interactions is closely linked to the reward system via the activation of dopaminergic neurons.

Featured Neuroscience

·September 2, 2021·4 min read

Beyond Dopamine: New Reward Circuitry Discovered

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.