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Updated: Dec 12, 2025
Combined In Vivo Anatomical and Functional Tracing of Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamate Terminals in the Hippocampus
Published on: September 9, 2020
Goal-directed actions transiently depend on dorsal hippocampus
Laura A Bradfield1,2, Beatrice K Leung3, Susan Boldt4
1Centre for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. laura.bradfield@uts.edu.au.
Abstract:
The role of the hippocampus in goal-directed action is currently unclear; studies investigating this issue have produced contradictory results. Here we reconcile these contradictions by demonstrating that, in rats, goal-directed action relies on the dorsal hippocampus, but only transiently, immediately after initial acquisition. Furthermore, we found that goal-directed action also depends transiently on physical context, suggesting a psychological basis for the hippocampal regulation of goal-directed action control.
