An organism's survival can depend on its ability to recall and navigate to spatial locations
associated with rewards, such as food or a home. Accumulating research has revealed that …

The mesolimbic dopamine system—which originates in the ventral tegmental area and
projects to the striatum—has been shown to be involved in the expression of sex-specific …

A large body of work has aimed to define the precise information encoded by dopaminergic
projections innervating the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Prevailing models are based on …

Studies investigating the neural mechanisms by which associations between cues and
predicted outcomes control behavior often use associative learning frameworks to …

Central nervous system neurons communicate via fast synaptic transmission mediated by
ligand-gated ion channel (LGIC) receptors and slower neuromodulation mediated by G …

The prefrontal cortex plays a central role in the control of complex cognitive processes
including action control and decision making. It also shows a specific pattern of delayed …

The study of comparative cognition bloomed in the 1970s and 1980s with a focus on
representations in the heads of animals that undergird what animals can achieve. Even in …

Striatal dopamine (DA) release is critical for motivated actions and reinforcement learning,
and is locally influenced at the level of DA axons by other striatal neurotransmitters. Here …

Recent animal research on substance-use disorders (SUDs) has emphasized learning
models and the identification of 'addiction-prone'animals. Meanwhile, basic neuroscientific …

Striatal dopamine release is key for learning and motivation and is composed of subregions
including the dorsal striatum (DS), nucleus accumbens core, and the nucleus accumbens …