Dopamine ventral tegmental area

Monoaminergic. AD also affects the ascending monoaminergic brainstem systems, including dopamine (ventral tegmental area), norepinephrine (locus coeruleus), and serotonin (raphe nuclei), which parallel the central choliner-... 

In 1954, experiments by Olds and Milner revealed that the brain has specialized centers for reward functions. In these studies electrical stimulation of certain brain sites was found to be highly rewarding in the sense that rats operantly respond for electrical stimulation of these brain sites, often to the exclusion of any other activity. A neurotransmitter system that is particularly sensitive to electrical self-stimulation is the mesolimbic dopamine projection that originates in the ventral tegmental area and projects to structures closely... 

Swartz CM, Breen K, Leone F Serum prolactin levels during extended cocaine abstinence. AmJ Psychiatry 147 777—779, 1990 Sziraki I, Sershen H, Hashim A, et al Receptors in the ventral tegmental area mediating nicotine-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Neurochem Res 27 253-261, 2002... 

Momiyama, T, Nao5uiki, T and Saso, M (1993) A mechanism underl5dng dopamine Di and D2 receptor-mediated inhibition of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area in vitro. Br. J. Pharmacol. 109 933-940. 

The neuroehemical sites for psyehomotor stimulant reward are likely to be the presynaptic dopamine terminals located in the region of the nucleus aeeumbens, frontal cortex, and other forebrain structures that originate in the ventral tegmental area. Note, however, that intraeranial self-administration of eoeaine is elicited from the frontal cortex, but not from the nucleus aeeumbens (Goeders and Smith 1983). Thus, eoneomitant activation of structures other than the nucleus accumbens may be an important part of the circuitry involved in initiation of cocaine intravenous self-administration, as has been hypothesized for the opiates (Smith and Lane 1983 Smith et al. 1982). 

Olds, M.E. Amphetamine-induced increase in motor aetivity is correlated with higher firing rates of non-dopamine neurons in substantia nigra and ventral tegmental areas. Neurosci 24 477-490, 1988. 

O Virtually all abused substances appear to activate the same brain reward pathway. Key components of the reward pathway are the dopamine (DA) mesocorticolimbic system that projects from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NA) to the prefrontal cortex, the amygdala, and the olfactory tubercle (Figs. 33-3 and 33-4).5 Animal studies... 

Trulson, M. E. Preussler, D. W. (1984). Dopamine-containing ventral tegmental area neurons in freely moving cats activity during the sleepwaking cycle and effects of stress. Exp. Neurol 83, 367-77. 

Bagetta G., Sarro G. D., Priolo E., Nistico G. (1988). Ventral tegmental area site through which dopamine D2-receptor agonists evoke behavioral and electrocortical sleep in rats. Br. J. Pharmacol 95, 860-6. 

Cragg S., Greenfield S. (1997). Differential autoreceptor control of somatodendritic and axon terminal dopamine release in substantia nigra, ventral tegmental area and striatum. J. Neurosci 17, 5738-46. 

Trulson M., Preussler D. (1984). Dopamine-containing ventral tegmental area... 

Uramura K., Funahashi H., Muroya S. et at (2001). Orexin-a activates phospholipase C- and protein kinase C-mediated Ca2+ signaling in dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental area. NeuroReport 12, 1885-9. 

The neural structures involved in the promotion of the waking (W) state are located in the (1) brainstem [dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), median raphe nucleus (MRN), locus coeruleus (LC), laterodorsal and pedunculopontine tegmental nuclei (LDT/PPT), and medial-pontine reticular formation (mPRF)] (2) hypothalamus [tuberomammillary nucleus (TMN) and lateral hypothalamus (LH)[ (3) basal forebrain (BFB) (medial septal area, nucleus basalis of Meynert) and (4) midbrain ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) (Pace-Schott Hobson, 2002 Jones, 2003). The following neurotransmitters function to promote W (1) acetylcholine (ACh LDT/PPT, BFB) (2) noradrenaline (NA LC) (3) serotonin (5-HT DRN, MRN) (4) histamine (HA TMN) (5) glutamate (GLU mPRF, BFB, thalamus) (6) orexin (OX LH) and (7) dopamine (DA VTA, SNc) (Zoltoski et al, 1999 Monti, 2004). 

Ventral tegmental area and substantia nigrapars compacta (dopamine)... 

Matthews, R.T. and German, D.C., Electrophysiological evidence for excitation of rat ventral tegmental area dopamine neurons by morphine, Neuroscience, 11, 617, 1984. 

Corrigall, W.A., Coen, K.M., Adamson, K.L. Self-administered nicotine activates the mesolimbic dopamine system through the ventral tegmental area. Brain Res. 653 278, 1994. 

Schilstrom, B., Nomikos, G.G., Nisell, M., Hertel, P., Svensson, T.H. A-Methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonism in the ventral tegmental area diminishes the systemic nicotine-induced dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. Neuroscience. 82 781, 1998. 

Garzon, M., Vaughan, R.A., Uhl, G.R., Kuhar, M.J., Pickel, V.M. Cholinergic axon terminals in the ventral tegmental area target a subpopulation of neurons expressing low levels of the dopamine transporter. J. Comp. Neurol. 410 197, 1999. 

Kalivas, P.W. Neurotransmitter regulation of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area. Brain Res. Brain Res. Rev. 18 75, 1993. 

Laviolette, S.R., van der Kooy, D. Blockade of mesolimbic dopamine transmission dramatically increases sensitivity to the rewarding effects of nicotine in the ventral tegmental area. Mol. Psychiatry. 8 50, 2003. 

Erhardt, S., Schwieler, L., Engberg, G. Excitatory and inhibitory responses of dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area to nicotine. Synapse. 43 227, 2002. 

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