ArticleNature communications2018
Accumbens dopamine D2 receptors increase motivation by decreasing inhibitory transmission to the ventral pallidum.
Article in Nature communications, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 82 papers.
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Who cites it
82 citing papers in PubMed, 129 citations in OpenAlex.
- Dopamine release-associated striatal blood oxygenation and whole-brain dynamics during associative learning.Science advances · 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
- Mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways differentially support fentanyl-context associations.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Ventral Pallidum Cholinergic Neurons Respond to Reward and Signal Reward Value.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- The nucleus accumbens to ventral pallidum pathway regulates social play behavior via sex-specific mechanisms in juvenile rats.Brain structure & function · 2026Article
- Bright light exposure suppresses feeding and weight gain via a visual circuit linked to the lateral hypothalamus.Nature neuroscience · 2026Article
- Mu-opioid and nociceptin receptors show divergent, cell-type-specific actions in the mesocorticolimbic reward system in opioid use disorder.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Activation of dopamine D4 receptors in the nucleus accumbens shell increases motivation for palatable food and homeostatic feeding, whereas systemic blockade reduces feeding behavior in rats.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Single-cell sequencing of rodent ventral pallidum reveals diverse neuronal subtypes with noncanonical interregional continuity.Science advances · 2025Article
- A Drd1-cre mouse line with nucleus accumbens gene dysregulation exhibits blunted fentanyl seeking.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Gastrin-releasing peptide signaling in the nucleus accumbens medial shell regulates neuronal excitability and motivation.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Missense Variants in Nutrition-Related Genes: A Computational Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- An ace in the hole? Opportunities and limits of using mice to understand schizophrenia neurobiology.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Review
- PET/fMRI demonstrates that bariatric surgery may reverse striatal dopaminergic dysfunction in women with obesity.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- A nociceptive amygdala-striatal pathway modulating affective-motivational pain.Science advances · 2025Article
- Article
- Endogenous regulator of G protein signaling 14 (RGS14) blunts cocaine-induced emotionally motivated behaviors in female mice.Addiction neuroscience · 2025Article
- Inhibition of striatal indirect pathway during second postnatal week leads to long-lasting deficits in motivated behavior.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Beyond Infections: Exploring Immune-Mediated Pathways Linking Cannabis and Emerging Environmental Contaminants to Neurodevelopmental Outcomes.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2025Review
- Exploring habenular structural connectivity in Parkinson's disease: insights from 7 T MRI study.Journal of neurology · 2024Article
22 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) regulate motivated behavior, but the underlying neurobiological mechanisms remain unresolved. Here, we show that selective upregulation of D2Rs in the indirect pathway of the adult NAc enhances the willingness to work for food. Mechanistic studies in brain slices reveal that D2R upregulation attenuates inhibitory transmission at two main output projections of the indirect pathway, the classical long-range projections to the ventral pallidum (VP), as well as local collaterals to direct pathway medium spiny neurons. In vivo physiology confirms the reduction in indirect pathway inhibitory transmission to the VP, and inhibition of indirect pathway terminals to VP is sufficient to enhance motivation. In contrast, D2R upregulation in the indirect pathway does not disinhibit neuronal activity of the direct pathway in vivo. These data suggest that D2Rs in ventral striatal projection neurons promote motivation by weakening the canonical output to the ventral pallidum.
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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.