Addictive drugs are habit-forming. Addiction is a learned behavior; repeated exposure to
addictive drugs can stamp in learning. Dopamine-depleted or dopamine-deleted animals …

The interconnected nuclei of the ventral basal ganglia have long been identified as key
regulators of motivated behavior, and dysfunction of this circuit is strongly implicated in …

The long-range GABAergic input from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus
accumbens (NAc) is relatively understudied, and therefore its role in reward processing has …

Relief, the appetitive state after the termination of aversive stimuli, is evolutionarily
conserved. Understanding the behavioral role of this well-conserved phenomenon and its …

Nicotine stimulates the dopamine (DA) system, which is essential for its rewarding effect.
Nicotine is also aversive at high doses; yet, our knowledge about nicotine's dose-dependent …

Fast-acting neurotransmitters and slow, modulatory neuropeptides are co-released from
neurons in the central nervous system, albeit from distinct synaptic vesicles. The …

Addictive drugs increase ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neuron activity
through distinct cellular mechanisms, one of which involves disinhibition of DA neurons by …

Dopamine is required for working memory, but how it modulates the large-scale cortex is
unknown. Here, we report that dopamine receptor density per neuron, measured by …

The ventral pallidum (VP) contains GABA and glutamate neurons projecting to ventral
tegmental area (VTA) whose stimulation drives approach and avoidance, respectively. Yet …

Neuropeptides play an important role in modulating mesolimbic system function. However,
while synaptic inputs to the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have been extensively mapped …