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Science
January 2025
Laboratory of Cerebral Cortex Research, HUN-REN Institute of Experimental Medicine, Budapest, Hungary.
Rewards are essential for motivation, decision-making, memory, and mental health. We identified the subventricular tegmental nucleus (SVTg) as a brainstem reward center. In mice, reward and its prediction activate the SVTg, and SVTg stimulation leads to place preference, reduced anxiety, and accumbal dopamine release.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNature
January 2025
Neuroscience Institute, New York University Grossman School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA.
Numerous studies support the role of dopamine in modulating aggression, but the exact neural mechanisms remain elusive. Here we show that dopaminergic cells in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) can bidirectionally modulate aggression in male mice in an experience-dependent manner. Although VTA dopaminergic cells strongly influence aggression in novice aggressors, they become ineffective in expert aggressors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Sci (Weinh)
January 2025
Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Xijing Hospital, The Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, 710032, China.
Feeding behavior changes induced by opioid addiction significantly contribute to the worsening opioid crisis. Activation of the reward system has shown to provoke binge eating disorder in individuals with opioid use disorder, whereas prolonged opioid exposure leads to weight loss. Understanding the mechanisms underlying these phenomena is essential for addressing this pressing societal issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuropharmacology
January 2025
Department of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA.
Hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD) is the most reported sexual dysfunction among premenopausal women worldwide. Bremelanotide, trade name Vyleesi, has been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration to treat HSDD. However, despite approval, very little is known about its neurobiological mechanism of action.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCells
December 2024
Neuroscience Institute, Section of Padova, National Research Council (CNR), 35131 Padova, Italy.
Astrocytes from different brain regions respond with Ca elevations to the catecholamine norepinephrine (NE). However, whether this noradrenergic-mediated signaling is present in astrocytes from the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a dopaminergic circuit receiving noradrenergic inputs, has not yet been investigated. To fill in this gap, we applied a pharmacological approach along with two-photon microscopy and an AAV strategy to express a genetically encoded calcium indicator in VTA astrocytes.
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