Journal
ANNUAL REVIEW OF NEUROSCIENCE
Volume 45, Issue -, Pages 109-129Publisher
ANNUAL REVIEWS
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-neuro-110920-011929
Keywords
dopamine; striatum; motivation; ventral tegmental area; reward; aversion
Categories
Funding
- National Institutes of Health [R01DA042889, R01-MH123246, F32-MH127792]
- One Mind Foundation
- NARSAD Young Investigator Award [27936]
- Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation
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Ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons encode reward prediction errors, but their release in the nucleus accumbens is involved in reinforcement learning, motivation, aversion, and incentive salience. The contrast between the homogeneous role of dopamine neuron activity and the heterogeneous functions of dopamine release raises questions about how VTA dopamine activity translates into NAc dopamine release.
Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons are often thought to uniformly encode reward prediction errors. Conversely, DA release in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), the prominent projection target of these neurons, has been implicated in reinforcement learning, motivation, aversion, and incentive salience. This contrast between heterogeneous functions of DA release versus a homogeneous role for DA neuron activity raises numerous questions regarding how VTA DA activity translates into NAc DA release. Further complicating this issue is increasing evidence that distinct VTA DA projections into defined NAc subregions mediate diverse behavioral functions. Here, we evaluate evidence for heterogeneity within the mesoaccumbal DA system and argue that frameworks of DA function must incorporate the precise topographic organization of VTA DA neurons to clarify their contribution to health and disease.
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