The medial frontal cortex and adjacent orbitofrontal cortex have been the focus of
investigations of decision-making, behavioral flexibility, and social behavior. We review …

The past decade has witnessed exponentially growing interest in the lateral habenula (LHb)
owing to new discoveries relating to its critical role in regulating negatively motivated …

The N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) antagonist ketamine has attracted enormous
interest in mental health research owing to its rapid antidepressant actions, but its …

Chronic stress is a major risk factor for depression onset. However, it remains unclear how
repeated stress sculpts neural circuits and finally elicits depression. Given the essential role …

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) plays essential roles in behaviors motivated by stimuli with
either positive or negative valence, but how it processes motivationally opposing information …

Dopamine neurons facilitate learning by calculating reward prediction error, or the difference
between expected and actual reward. Despite two decades of research, it remains unclear …

Prolonged behavioral challenges can cause animals to switch from active to passive coping
strategies to manage effort-expenditure during stress; such normally adaptive behavioral …

The external globus pallidus (GPe) of the basal ganglia has been underappreciated owing
to poor understanding of its cells and circuits. It was assumed that the GPe consisted of a …

Depression is a devastating disorder with a combination of diverse symptoms such as low
self-esteem, lack of motivation, anhedonia, loss of appetite, low energy, and discomfort …

The basal ganglia play key roles in adaptive behaviors guided by reward and punishment.
However, despite accumulating knowledge, few studies have tested how heterogeneous …