ArticleNeuron2020
VTA Glutamatergic Neurons Mediate Innate Defensive Behaviors.
Article in Neuron, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 77 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
77 citing papers in PubMed.
- Nitrous oxide controls the DCN to VTA dopamine circuit by enhancing AMPA receptor functions during rewarding behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Upregulation of AK7 in ACC-VTA glutamatergic projections contributes to chronic inflammation pain in male mice.EMBO reports · 2026Article
- Psychedelic 4-AcO-DMT attenuated looming-induced freezing behaviors by activating PrLMolecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Brain Architecture of Punishment Learning.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Sleep circuit modulation: from animal models to human translation.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2026Review
- Mesohabenular glutamatergic regulation of the consequences of uncontrollable stress.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Activation of hypothalamic-pontine-spinal pathway promotes locomotor initiation and functional recovery after spinal cord injury in mice.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Upregulation of NR2A in Glutamatergic VTA Neurons Contributes to Chronic Visceral Pain in Male Mice.Neuroscience bulletin · 2025Article
- A lateral hypothalamic region supporting diverse visual processing and modulation of visually-guided behaviour.Nature communications · 2025Article
- A medial habenula neural circuit controlling anxiety-like behaviors in response to acute stress.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Article
- VTA monosynaptic connections by local glutamate and GABA neurons and their distinct roles in behavior.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Untangling the multifaceted VTA responses to stress.Trends in neurosciences · 2025Review
- Basal Forebrain to Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamatergic Pathway Promotes Emergence from Isoflurane Anesthesia in Mice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Anatomical and behavioral characterization of three hemiplegic animal models.BMC neuroscience · 2025Article
- Salience Signaling and Stimulus Scaling of Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamate Neuron Subtypes.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- A hypothalamus-brainstem circuit governs the prioritization of safety over essential needs.Nature neuroscience · 2025Article
- Disrupted maternal behavior in morphine-dependent pregnant rats and anhedonia in their offspring.Neuropharmacology · 2025Article
- Article
- Distinct ventral tegmental area neuronal ensembles are indispensable for reward-driven approach and stress-driven avoidance behaviors.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Acute and chronic gene expression activation following medial forebrain bundle DBS and selective dopamine pathway stimulation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
17 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The ventral tegmental area (VTA) has dopamine, GABA, and glutamate neurons, which have been implicated in reward and aversion. Here, we determined whether VTA-glutamate or -GABA neurons play a role in innate defensive behavior. By VTA cell-type-specific genetic ablation, we found that ablation of glutamate, but not GABA, neurons abolishes escape behavior in response to threatening stimuli. We found that escape behavior is also decreased by chemogenetic inhibition of VTA-glutamate neurons and detected increases in activity in VTA-glutamate neurons in response to the threatening stimuli. By ultrastructural and electrophysiological analysis, we established that VTA-glutamate neurons receive a major monosynaptic glutamatergic input from the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) and found that photoinhibition of this input decreases escape responses to threatening stimuli. These findings indicate that VTA-glutamate neurons are activated by and required for innate defensive responses and that information on threatening stimuli to VTA-glutamate neurons is relayed by LHA-glutamate neurons.
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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.