ReviewNeuron2012
The mysterious motivational functions of mesolimbic dopamine.
Review in Neuron, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 694 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
694 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 1,382 citations in OpenAlex.
- Therapeutic effects of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for substance use disorders: a meta-analysis of addiction-related and emotional symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- The effect of monetary versus point-based rewards on effort-cost decision making in individuals at clinical high risk for psychosis.Schizophrenia research · 2026Trial
- The impact of levodopa on post-stroke depression: the ESTREL-depression-study.European stroke journal · 2026Trial
- Therapeutic Potential of Saffron Extract in Mild Depression: A Study of Its Role on Anhedonia in Rats and Humans.Phytotherapy research : PTR · 2025Trial
- Striatal dopamine D2/D3 receptor regulation of human reward processing and behaviour.Nature communications · 2025Trial
- Nucleus Accumbens and Ventral Tegmental Area Functional Connectivity as a Marker of Reward Sensitivity in Infancy.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Dopamine release-associated striatal blood oxygenation and whole-brain dynamics during associative learning.Science advances · 2026Article
- Hypothalamic-amygdala gating of caregiving-like prosocial behavior in mice.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2026Article
- Vitamin A deficiency induces sex-specific reward processing alterations through a dysregulation of the mesolimbic dopamine transmission in mice.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Effects of oxycodone on tonic levels and phasic release of serotonin in the rat nucleus accumbens core.Bioelectrochemistry (Amsterdam, Netherlands) · 2026Article
- Energy-dependent modulation of nucleus accumbens output via K-ATP channel activity.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Predicting alcohol consumption and reward sensitivity using responses for natural sucrose reward in non-food-restricted rats.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Top-down control of sustained attention by medial prefrontal cortex-locus coeruleus (mPFC-LC) projection neurons during the rodent continuous performance test (rCPT).Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Resolution of anhedonia-like symptoms in patients treated for obesity with tirzepatide: A three-case series.Obesity pillars · 2026Article
- PT320, a GLP-1 receptor agonist, mitigates nucleus accumbens-associated depression- and anxiety-like behaviors in MitoPark mice of Parkinson's disease.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- A Selective Cortico-Limbic Network Organizes Behavior During Reward Seeking Under Threat.Journal of neuroscience research · 2026Article
- Mitofusin-2 in ventral striatal D1 neurons regulates effort-based motivation through sex-specific mitochondrial-synaptic reprogramming.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- Obesity is associated with greater variability of reward signals in the nucleus accumbens.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Cerebellar neural populations orchestrate dopamine reward signaling with single-trial precision.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Neurochemical drivers of effort: The roles of dopamine and beyond in physical and cognitive exertion.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
634 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
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 of motivation that are differentially affected by dopaminergic manipulations. For example, accumbens dopamine does not mediate primary food motivation or appetite, but is involved in appetitive and aversive motivational processes including behavioral activation, exertion of effort, approach behavior, sustained task engagement, Pavlovian processes, and instrumental learning. In this review, we discuss the complex roles of dopamine in behavioral functions related to motivation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.