A recurrent reward circuit in Drosophila, comprised of specific dopamine neurons and a single class of mushroom body output neurons, transforms a nascent memory trace into a stable long-term memory.

The bidirectional orbitofrontal cortex-basolateral amygdala circuit helps us to learn the details of predicted rewarding events and then to use that information to make good reward pursuit decisions.

Children with autism often 'tune out' the voices in their environment and new results show that impaired processing of voices in the brain's reward system may underlie this social behavior.

Alcohol modifies dopaminergic microcircuits required for acquisition and expression of sensory memories in Drosophila resulting in a shift in behavioral response from malleable to inflexible.

LDT-VTA dysfunction induced by prenatal glucocorticoid exposure leads to reward deficits that can be ameliorated by selective optogenetic activation of this circuit.

Self-motivated learning in the absence of external feedback can recruit the same brain network as reward-driven learning.

Computational modeling offers an explanation for why animals learn more quickly or slowly when their environment becomes more variable or stable.

Co-evolution of sexually dimorphic reinforcement systems for song can explain the coexistence of the seemingly contradictory traits of gregariousness and monogamy in social songbirds.

Behavior- or optogenetic-driven activation of a basolateral amygdala projection to the nucleus accumbens enhances infralimbic cortex activity and long-term fear extinction.

A brain-wide map of neural activation reveals how sexual experience becomes a pair bond in the monogamous prairie vole.