To benefit from opportunities and cope with challenges in the environment, animals must
adapt their behavior to acquire rewards and to avoid punishments. Maladaptive changes in …

Dopamine (DA), serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT), and endocannabinoids (ECs) are
key neuromodulators involved in many aspects of motivated behavior, including reward …

The specific role of serotonin and its interplay with dopamine (DA) in adaptive, reward
guided behavior as well as drug dependance, still remains elusive. Recently, novel methods …

Addictive drugs act on brain reward systems, although the brain evolved to respond not to
drugs but to natural rewards, such as food and sex. Appropriate responses to natural …

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a critical element of the mesocorticolimbic system, a brain
circuit implicated in reward and motivation. This basal forebrain structure receives dopamine …

Understanding the brain circuitry that underlies reward is critical to improve treatment for
many common health issues, including obesity, depression, and addiction. Here we focus …

Dopamine (DA) regulates emotional and motivational behavior through the mesolimbic
dopaminergic pathway. Changes in DA mesolimbic neurotransmission have been found to …

Scientific interest in how the brain processes reward has burgeoned during the past 50
years since the discovery that rats will do tasks such as pressing a lever to obtain electrical …

The brain is wired to predict future outcomes. Experience-dependent plasticity at excitatory
synapses within dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area, a key region for a broad …

The brain serotonin systems participate in numerous aspects of reward processing, although
it remains elusive how exactly serotonin signals regulate neural computation and reward …