title: Ventral tegmental area: cellular heterogeneity, connectivity and behaviour.
abstract: Dopamine-releasing neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) have central roles in reward-related and goal-directed behaviours. VTA dopamine-releasing neurons are heterogeneous in their afferent and efferent connectivity and, in some cases, release GABA or glutamate in addition to dopamine. Recent findings show that motivational signals arising from the VTA can also be carried by non-dopamine-releasing projection neurons, which have their own specific connectivity. Both dopamine-releasing and non-dopamine-releasing VTA neurons integrate afferent signals with local inhibitory or excitatory inputs to generate particular output firing patterns. Various individual inputs, outputs and local connections have been shown to be sufficient to generate reward- or aversion-related behaviour, indicative of the impressive contribution of this small population of neurons to behaviour.
authors.affiliation: Neuronal Networks Section, Integrative Neuroscience Research Branch, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 251 Bayview Boulevard, Suite 200, Baltimore, Maryland 21224, USA.
authors.forename: Marisela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morales
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Wheeler Center for the Neurobiology of Addiction, Alcoholism and Addiction Research Group, University of California San Francisco, 675 Nelson Rising Lane, San Francisco, California 94158, USA.
authors.forename: Elyssa B
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Margolis
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D059290:Dopaminergic Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D059330:GABAergic Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D018698:Glutamic Acid / Q000502:physiology; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009042:Motivation / Q000502:physiology; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D009435:Synaptic Transmission / Q000502:physiology; D017557:Ventral Tegmental Area / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*
chemical_list: D018698:Glutamic Acid