Putative γ-aminobutyric acid neurons in the ventral tegmental area have a similar pattern of plasticity as dopamine neurons during appetitive and aversive learning.

ABSTRACT: Dopamine influences affective, motor and cognitive processing, and multiple forms of learning and memory. This multifaceted functionality, which operates across long temporal windows, is broader than the narrow and temporally constrained role often ascribed to dopamine neurons as reward prediction error detectors. Given the modulatory nature of dopamine neurotransmission, that dopamine release is activated by both aversive and appetitive stimuli, and that dopamine receptors are often localized extrasynaptically, a role for dopamine in transmitting precise error signals has been questioned. Here we recorded from ventral tegmental area (VTA) neurons, while exposing rats to novel stimuli that were predictive of an appetitive or aversive outcome in the same behavioral session. The VTA contains

SUBMITTER: Kim YB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3070471 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature