The Ventral Tegmental Area to Accumbens GABAergic Projection: Promoting Prediction or Engineering Extinction?

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is critical for setting the vigor of reward-seeking behavior and for learning to respond to reward-predictive cues. Aberrant NAc neuronal activity also contributes to neuropsychiatric diseases, such as drug and gambling addiction. Each of these processes depends critically on the projections to the NAc from the midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA). Most studies of the VTA have focused on its dopamine neurons, which project mainly to the NAc and prefrontal cortex. Dopamine neurons both facilitate reward seeking and play a critical role in learning.
Source: Biological Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: Commentary Source Type: research