ArticleBehavioral neuroscience2009
Transient inactivation of the ventral tegmental area selectively disrupts the expression of conditioned place preference for pup- but not cocaine-paired contexts.
Article in Behavioral neuroscience, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dopamine dynamics underlying maternal motivation and reward.Neuroscience research · 2025Review
- Gestational stress disrupts dopamine and oxytocin signaling in the postpartum reward system of rats: implications for mood, motivation and mothering.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Estradiol withdrawal following a hormone simulated pregnancy induces deficits in affective behaviors and increases ∆FosB in D1 and D2 neurons in the nucleus accumbens core in mice.Hormones and behavior · 2023Article
- Article
- Oxytocin interactions with central dopamine and serotonin systems regulate different components of motherhood.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Review
- Alterations in corticotropin-releasing factor receptor type 1 in the preoptic area and hypothalamus in mice during the postpartum period.Hormones and behavior · 2021Article
- A Scientometric Approach to Review the Role of the Medial Preoptic Area (MPOA) in Parental Behavior.Brain sciences · 2021Review
- The Prolactin Family of Hormones as Regulators of Maternal Mood and Behavior.Frontiers in global women's health · 2021Review
- Adaptations in reward-related behaviors and mesolimbic dopamine function during motherhood and the postpartum period.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2020Review
- Decreased mesolimbic dopaminergic signaling underlies the waning of maternal caregiving across the postpartum period in rats.Psychopharmacology · 2020Article
- The maternal reward system in postpartum depression.Archives of women's mental health · 2019Review
- Thalamic integration of social stimuli regulating parental behavior and the oxytocin system.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2018Review
- Article
- Neural control of parental behaviors.Current opinion in neurobiology · 2018Review
- Use of fast-scan cyclic voltammetry to assess phasic dopamine release in rat models of early postpartum maternal behavior and neglect.Behavioural pharmacology · 2017Article
- Involvement of ventral tegmental area ionotropic glutamate receptors in the expression of ethanol-induced conditioned place preference.Behavioural brain research · 2016Article
- The medial preoptic area modulates cocaine-induced locomotion in male rats.Behavioural brain research · 2016Article
- Maternally responsive neurons in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis and medial preoptic area: Putative circuits for regulating anxiety and reward.Frontiers in neuroendocrinology · 2015Review
- Oxytocin, motivation and the role of dopamine.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2014Review
- Thalamic neuropeptide mediating the effects of nursing on lactation and maternal motivation.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2013Article
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2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
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Abstract
The ventral tegmental area (VTA) plays a critical role in motivated behavior. However, it remains unclear whether intact VTA function is necessary for motivated behavior to seek contexts repeatedly paired with natural stimuli and/or pharmacological stimuli. In the present study, conditioned place preference (CPP) was induced with highly salient natural or drug stimuli attributed with strong incentive-motivational value in each of 2 female models: Postpartum females were conditioned to associate one unique context in the CPP apparatus with young offspring (pups) and a second context with a neutral stimulus, and virgin females were conditioned to associate unique contexts with cocaine (5 mg/kg ip) and saline injections. Immediately before CPP testing, each female received a microinfusion of bupivacaine bilaterally into the VTA to transiently inactivate the region; subjects were also tested after saline microinfusion into the VTA. Postpartum females' preference for the pup-paired context was abolished by VTA inactivation but was restored to high control levels after saline microinfusion. In separate tests, VTA inactivation also reduced motivated pup licking and pup retrieval in postpartum females, suggesting that intact VTA function is required for the expression of both pup CPP and motivated pup-directed behaviors. Cocaine CPP remained unaffected by VTA inactivation. Locomotion was not affected by VTA microinfusions but was severely impaired by bupivacaine microinfusions into the substantia nigra. We concluded that the VTA is differentially involved in the expression of conditioned preference for contexts paired with pups, a salient natural stimulus, and contexts paired with cocaine.
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