Glutamatergic neurons are present in the rat ventral tegmental area

Glutamatergic afferents of the ventral tegmental area in the rat.

Glutamatergic inputs to the ventral tegmental area (VTA), thought crucial to the capacity of the VTA to detect and signal stimulus salience, have been reported to arise in but a few structures. However, the afferent system of the VTA comprises very abundant neurons within a large formation extending from the prefrontal cortex to the caudal brainstem. Neurons in nearly all parts of this continuu...

Opioid Agonists Inhibit Glutamatergic Input to Ventral Tegmental Area Neurons”

Identification of Rat Ventral Tegmental Area GABAergic Neurons

The canonical two neuron model of opioid reward posits that mu opioid receptor (MOR) activation produces reward by disinhibiting midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons through inhibition of local GABAergic interneurons. Although indirect evidence supports the neural circuit postulated by this model, its validity has been called into question by growing evidence for VTA neuronal ...

GABAergic and glutamatergic efferents of the mouse ventral tegmental area.

The role of dopaminergic (DA) projections from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in appetitive and rewarding behavior has been widely studied, but the VTA also has documented DA-independent functions. Several drugs of abuse, act on VTA GABAergic neurons, and most studies have focused on local inhibitory connections. Relatively little is known about VTA GABA projection neurons and their connectio...

Salsolinol Facilitates Glutamatergic Transmission to Dopamine Neurons in the Posterior Ventral Tegmental Area of Rats

Although in vivo evidence indicates that salsolinol, the condensation product of acetaldehyde and dopamine, has properties that may contribute to alcohol abuse, the underlying mechanisms have not been fully elucidated. We have reported previously that salsolinol stimulates dopamine neurons in the posterior ventral tegmental area (p-VTA) partly by reducing inhibitory GABAergic transmission, and ...