Dopamine and GABA neurons in the ventral tegmental area encode short-term memory in the T-maze task, which cannot be explained by reward-related processes, motivated behavior, or motor-related activities.

A modified viral strategy reveals that ventral tegmental area dopamine cells receive substantial inputs from local sources, including distributed GABAergic and serotonergic inputs from the midbrain as well as extensive inputs from other midbrain dopamine cells.

The midbrain area for salience, reward and aversion in mouse brain harbours among the dopamine cells three subtypes somatostatin-expressing neurons that show combinatorial neurotransmitter phenotypes and interneuron properties.

Functional identification of GABAergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area as a important neuronal subpopulation regulating non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep in mice.

HCN2 channels in the ventral tegmental area play an important role in the pathophysiology of chronic mild stress-induced behavioral deficits.

Experiments examining the actions of morphine on single neurons from one of the brain's reward centers, the VTA, reveal the mechanism by which the drug exerts its hedonic effects.

The VTA-mOT DAergic pathway mediates a variety of naturalistic reward processes and different types of preferences including odor-preference.

Molecular, laminar, and regional characterization in combination with classical and conditional tracing techniques reveal that medial prefrontal cortical neurons innervating the nucleus accumbens and the ventral tegmental area form distinct populations.

Genetic analysis of Ntn1 in adult mouse midbrain neurons reveals its function in maintaining excitatory synapses, loss of Ntn1 function in inhibitory neurons is significantly detrimental to mesolimbic system function.

In contrast to current models, inputs from midbrain limbic structures, but not from the hippocampus, are necessary for mammillary body contributions to memory.