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Updated: Sep 30, 2025

Comprehensive Profiling of Dopamine Regulation in Substantia Nigra and Ventral Tegmental Area
Published on: August 10, 2012
Medial prefrontal cortex and anteromedial thalamus interaction regulates goal-directed behavior and dopaminergic
Chen Yang1,2, Yuzheng Hu3,4, Aleksandr D Talishinsky1
1Neurocircuitry of Motivation Section, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, Baltimore, MD, 21224, USA.
Abstract:
The prefrontal cortex is involved in goal-directed behavior. Here, we investigate circuits of the PFC regulating motivation, reinforcement, and its relationship to dopamine neuron activity. Stimulation of medial PFC (mPFC) neurons in mice activated many downstream regions, as shown by fMRI. Axonal terminal stimulation of mPFC neurons in downstream regions, including the anteromedial thalamic nucleus (AM), reinforced behavior and activated midbrain dopaminergic neurons. The stimulation of AM neurons projecting to the mPFC also reinforced behavior and activated dopamine neurons, and mPFC and AM showed a positive-feedback loop organization. We also found using fMRI in human participants watching reinforcing video clips that there is reciprocal excitatory functional connectivity, as well as co-activation of the two regions. Our results suggest that this cortico-thalamic loop regulates motivation, reinforcement, and dopaminergic neuron activity.
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