How conditioned stimuli acquire the ability to activate VTA dopamine cells: a proposed neurobiological component of reward-related learning

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Margaret R Zellner, Robert Ranaldi

Abstract

The ability to learn about conditioned stimuli (CS) associated with rewards is a crucial adaptive mechanism. Activity in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine (DA) system, as well as in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), is correlated with responding to and learning about CSs. The mechanism by which VTA neurons become activated by signals associated with conditioned stimuli is not fully understood. Our model suggests that NMDA receptor stimulation in the VTA allows originally weak glutamate signals carrying information about environmental stimuli, coincident with strong excitation correlated with primary rewards, to be strengthened and thereby acquire the ability to activate VTA neurons in themselves, producing approach. Furthermore, once synaptic strengthening occurs, the model suggests that NMDA receptor stimulation in VTA is not necessary for the expression of reward-related learning. In this review we survey evidence that VTA cells respond to cues associated with primary rewards, that this responding is acquired, and that the VTA possesses the attributes to function as a site of integration of signals of primary and conditioned stimuli.

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Citations

Apr 24, 2013·Psychopharmacology·Ewa GalajRobert Ranaldi
Nov 28, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Edita NavratilovaFrank Porreca
Sep 5, 2012·Reviews in the Neurosciences·Matthew C HearingKevin Wickman
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Mar 19, 2013·Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences·Edita NavratilovaFrank Porreca
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Sep 12, 2012·Behavioural Brain Research·Karen KestRobert Ranaldi
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Jan 1, 2009·Advances in Experimental Social Psychology·Lisa Feldman Barrett, Eliza Bliss-Moreau
Jan 14, 2018·Scientific Reports·Susan LeemburgAndreas Luft
Jun 3, 2014·Reviews in the Neurosciences·Robert Ranaldi
Mar 21, 2017·Child Psychiatry and Human Development·Dennis E ReidyKent A Kiehl
Nov 23, 2017·Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience·Adonis Yiannakas, Kobi Rosenblum
Feb 14, 2021·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Ewa Galaj, Robert Ranaldi
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Jun 27, 2021·Human Brain Mapping·Bernadette HippmannSarah Jessen
Oct 1, 2021·Current Obesity Reports·Eric Stice, Sonja Yokum

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