Where Is My Reward?

摘要

Efficient reward-seeking requires that environmental stimuli are interpreted in the proper context, to predict when and where reward can be expected. In the brain, the ventral tegmental area and its dopamin-erqic projections are critical to the regulation of reward-seeking. How the ventral tegmental area system relates to other contextual information, such as where reward can be expected, remains unclear. Luo et al. (p. 353) used a combination of anatomical, physiological, and behavioral techniques to define a polysynaptic pathway from the CA3 region of the hippocampus to the ventral tegmental area. The findings reveal connections between the dorsal hippocampus, a structure implicated in the processing of contextual cues, and the ventral tegmentum, a structure involved in the regulation of motivated behavior.