ArticleNature neuroscience2021
Ventral tegmental area GABAergic inhibition of cholinergic interneurons in the ventral nucleus accumbens shell promotes reward reinforcement.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 65 papers.
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Who cites it
65 citing papers in PubMed.
- Nucleus Accumbens and Ventral Tegmental Area Functional Connectivity as a Marker of Reward Sensitivity in Infancy.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Article
- Cross-species brain-wide mapping reveals convergent mesocorticolimbic engagement by nucleus accumbens deep brain stimulation.Molecular psychiatry · 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
- N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT) Acutely Exposed to Mouse Ventral Tegmental Area IJournal of neurochemistry · 2026Article
- Dopamine and Acetylcholine in the Striatum: Circuit Interactions and Behavioral Control in Substance Use Disorders.Brain sciences · 2026Review
- Article
- A top-down neural circuit for affective-motivational responses of pain relief induced by electroacupuncture.Chinese medicine · 2026Article
- Stress resilience is associated with transcriptional remodeling in the VTA.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Functional imaging of time on task and the involvement of dopaminergic and cholinergic substrates in cognitive effort and reward.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Regional heterogeneity of striatal cholinergic interneurons: setting the stage for diverse behavioral repertoires.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Review
- Multidimensional tumor heterogeneity and its role in therapeutic resistance.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Review
- The neurons in NAc core receiving ACC excitatory afferents contribute to chronic postoperative pain.iScience · 2025Article
- Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Stress resilience is associated with transcriptional remodeling in the VTA.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Cannabinoid CB1 receptor in dopaminergic circuit from ventral tegmental area to nucleus accumbens links trait anxiety with reward learning.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- VTA monosynaptic connections by local glutamate and GABA neurons and their distinct roles in behavior.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Ventral tegmental area GABA neurons integrate positive and negative valence.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Flexible updating of reward and punishment contingencies by VTA GABA neurons.Current biology : CB · 2025Article
5 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The long-range GABAergic input from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) is relatively understudied, and therefore its role in reward processing has remained unknown. In the present study, we show, in both male and female mice, that long-range GABAergic projections from the VTA to the ventral NAc shell, but not to the dorsal NAc shell or NAc core, are engaged in reward and reinforcement behavior. We show that this GABAergic projection exclusively synapses on to cholinergic interneurons (CINs) in the ventral NAc shell, thereby serving a specialized function in modulating reinforced reward behavior through the inhibition of ventral NAc shell CINs. These findings highlight the diversity in the structural and functional topography of VTA GABAergic projections, and their neuromodulatory interactions across the dorsoventral gradient of the NAc shell. They also further our understanding of neuronal circuits that are directly implicated in neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and addiction.
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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.