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...

The process of birth (parturition) has a critical impact on normal human development. Any deviations from the typical parturition process are defined clinically as birth complications, and have been linked to the development of neurological deficits. Two relatively common types of consequences from birth complications are perinatal asphyxia and Caesarean Section delivery (C-section); however, C...

Neurobiological mechanisms that normally control food intake and energy expenditure can be overcome by environmental cues and by stress. Of particular importance is the influence of the mesolimbic reward pathway. In genetically susceptible individuals, problematic over-eating likely reflects a changing balance in the control exerted by homeostatic versus reward circuits that are strongly influe...

The mesolimbic dopamine system is essential for reward-seeking behavior, and drugs of abuse are thought to usurp the normal functioning of this pathway. A growing body of evidence suggests that glutamatergic synapses on dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are modified during exposure to addictive drugs, producing sensitization, a progressive augmentation in the rewarding proper...

Background The ventral subiculum is known to be activated by the presentation of novel stressors. It has been hypothesized that neuronal ensembles at the ventral aspect of the hippocampal formation are involved in context-dependent processing and can guide the learning of appropriate action selections in response to threatening contexts. Artificial activation of the ventral subiculum can excite...

Even though the pathophysiology of restless legs syndrome is not completely understood, several imaging studies have contributed to our understanding of the disease. Functional and metabolic impairment seems to be the pathophysiological core, tied to a single brain network or multiple connected brain networks, via neurotransmitter modifications. Positron emission tomography and single photon em...

BACKGROUND Previous work has shown that chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) induces increased phasic firing of ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine (DA) neurons that project to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) selectively in mice that are susceptible to the deleterious effects of the stress. In addition, acute optogenetic phasic stimulation of these neurons promotes susceptibility in animals expose...

Nucleus accumbens dopamine is known to play a role in motivational processes, and dysfunctions of mesolimbic dopamine may contribute to motivational symptoms of depression and other disorders, as well as features of substance abuse. Although it has become traditional to label dopamine neurons as "reward" neurons, this is an overgeneralization, and it is important to distinguish between aspects ...