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Featured Neuroscience

·August 8, 2021·4 min read

How Dopamine Plays a Key Role in Consciousness

Study reveals how dopamine may have a central role in maintaining our consciousness.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 10, 2021·4 min read

Brainfood: Researchers Find Brain Area Associated with Craving Protein

Study reveals the role the ventral tegmental area of the brain plays in craving protein-rich foods.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·April 6, 2021·4 min read

Leptin Puts the Brakes on Eating via Novel Neurocircuit

Researchers have identified novel neurocircuitry between midbrain structures which are modulated by leptin to control eating behaviors in mice.

This shows the brain with the VTA highlighted

Featured Neuroscience

·March 15, 2021·5 min read

How the Brain Learns From Subconscious Stimuli

When the ventral tegmental area was stimulated, monkeys were better able to identify details associated with subconscious visual stimuli they were exposed to.

This shows the location of the VTA and NAc in the brain

Featured Neuroscience

·August 25, 2020·5 min read

Researchers Reversibly Disable Brain Pathway in Primates

Researchers temporarily switched off the neural pathway between the ventral tegmental area and nucleus accumbens in primate models, negatively impacting motivation, but not learning.

Electrophysiology Featured Neuroscience

·August 3, 2020·3 min read

Green Apple Flavor in Vapes Enhances Nicotine Reward

Common green apple flavorant farnesene enhances nicotine reward in mouse models. The flavorant is also rewarding on its own. Researchers say with or without nicotine, flavored vapes, especially those containing farnesene, pose potential neurological risks, including addiction.

Featured Neuroscience

·June 2, 2020·3 min read

Estrogen’s role in the sex differences of alcohol abuse

Estrogen level fluctuations appear to play a role in alcohol use disorder in women. Reducing the number of estrogen receptors in the ventral tegmental area decreased binge drinking behaviors in female mouse models.

Featured Neuroscience Open Neuroscience Articles

·May 4, 2020·4 min read

Exercise boosts motor skill learning via changes in brain’s transmitters

Neurons in the caudal pedunculopontine nucleus, an area of the brain that regulates motor coordination, switch neurotransmitters from acetylcholine to GABA as a result of exercise. The switch appears to provide feedback control that regulates motor coordination and skill learning.

Featured Genetics Neuroscience

·April 9, 2020·4 min read

Novel role for dopamine that impacts gene expression related to cocaine abuse discovered

Reducing H3Q5dop in rat models of cocaine withdrawal significantly reversed cocaine mediated gene expression changes and reduced cocaine-seeking behaviors.

Featured Neuroscience

·April 6, 2020·6 min read

Newly identified digestive-brain axis controls food choice

Study reveals a novel learning process orchestrated between the digestive system and brain that compels animals to seek out novel foods.

This shows the chemical structure of dopamine

Featured Neuroscience

·February 5, 2020·3 min read

Novelty speeds up learning thanks to dopamine activation

Novelty directly activates the dopamine system and enhances associative learning. The findings have implications for the development of new machine learning technologies and educational strategies.

Featured Neuroscience Psychology

·December 11, 2019·7 min read

Rave new world: Scientists pry apart party drug’s therapeutic, addictive qualities

Researchers have distinguished two different molecular pathways responsible for addiction and the prosocial feelings generated by MDMA. The findings could lead to novel treatments for psychiatric disorders marked by withdrawal and social awkwardness.

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VTA

How Dopamine Plays a Key Role in Consciousness

Brainfood: Researchers Find Brain Area Associated with Craving Protein

Leptin Puts the Brakes on Eating via Novel Neurocircuit

How the Brain Learns From Subconscious Stimuli

Researchers Reversibly Disable Brain Pathway in Primates

Green Apple Flavor in Vapes Enhances Nicotine Reward

Estrogen’s role in the sex differences of alcohol abuse

Exercise boosts motor skill learning via changes in brain’s transmitters

Novel role for dopamine that impacts gene expression related to cocaine abuse discovered

Newly identified digestive-brain axis controls food choice

Novelty speeds up learning thanks to dopamine activation

Rave new world: Scientists pry apart party drug’s therapeutic, addictive qualities

Unlocking the Relapse Switch: The Circuit That Drives Addiction

AI Autocomplete Covertly Shifts Human Opinions

Depression’s “Energy Crisis”: Fatigue Starts at the Cellular Level

Reversing Memory Loss via the Vagus Nerve

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