Relative contributions and mapping of ventral tegmental area dopamine and GABA neurons by projection target in the rat.

ABSTRACT: The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a heterogeneous midbrain structure that contains dopamine (DA), GABA, and glutamate neurons that project to many different brain regions. Here, we combined retrograde tracing with immunocytochemistry against tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) or glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) to systematically compare the proportion of dopaminergic and GABAergic VTA projections to 10 target nuclei: anterior cingulate, prelimbic, and infralimbic cortex; nucleus accumbens core, medial shell, and lateral shell; anterior and posterior basolateral amygdala; ventral pallidum; and periaqueductal gray. Overall, the non-dopaminergic component predominated VTA efferents, accounting for more than 50% of all projecting neurons to each region except the nucleus accumbens core. In addition, GAB

SUBMITTER: Breton JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6347508 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature