background: nicotine can activate dopaminergic neurons within the ventral tegmental area (vta). however, there is no evidence about complete inhibition of vta on nicotine reinforcement. methods: in the present study, we used conditioned-place preference (cpp) method to study the effect of transient inhibition of left and/or right side of the vta by lidocaine on nicotine reward properties. male ...

background: the ventral tegmental area (vta) is well known for its role in cardiovascular control. it is demonstrated that about 20-30% of the vta neurons are gabaergic though their role in cardiovascular control is not yet understood. this study is carried out to find the effects of gaba a and gaba b receptors on cardiovascular response of the vta. methods: experiments were performed on uretha...

ABSTRACT The locus coeruleus (LC) produces phasic and tonic firing patterns that are theorized to have distinct functional consequences. However, how different modes affect learning valence encoding of sensory information unknown. Here, we show bilateral optogenetic activation rat LC neurons using 10-Hz trains either 300 ms or 10 s accelerated acquisition a similar odor discrimination. Similar ...

Abstract Introduction Recurrent arousals in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may lead to alteration functional connection involving the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS). We aimed evaluate resting-state connectivity (FC) between eight ARAS nuclei and 105 cortical/subcortical regions OSA patients matched controls. Methods Total of 50 with moderate severe 20 controls without underwent ove...

Background: Nicotine can activate dopaminergic neurons within the ventral tegmental area (VTA). However, there is no evidence about complete inhibition of VTA on nicotine reinforcement. Methods: in the present study, we used conditioned-place preference (CPP) method to study the effect of transient inhibition of left and/or right side of the VTA by lidocaine on nicotine reward properties. Male ...

It is known that the posterior ventral tegmental area (p-VTA) differs from the anterior VTA (a-VTA) in that rats learn to self-administer ethanol into the p-VTA, but not into the a-VTA. Because activation of VTA dopaminergic neurons by ethanol is a cellular mechanism underlying the reinforcement of ethanol consumption, we hypothesized that ethanol may exert different effects on dopaminergic neu...

Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons play an important role in reward mechanisms of food intake, and VTA dopamine receptors exist on the terminal of glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons and regulate GABA and glutamate release. To our knowledge, there is no evidence to show that VTA D1 dopamine receptors play a role in regular chow intake. In this paper, the effect of SKF38393, a D1 rece...

Activation of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and mesolimbic networks is essential to motivation, performance, and learning. Humans routinely attempt to motivate themselves, with unclear efficacy or impact on VTA networks. Using fMRI, we found untrained participants' motivational strategies failed to consistently activate VTA. After real-time VTA neurofeedback training, however, participants v...