Dopaminergic Reward System: a Short Integrative Review

Overview

Journal Int Arch Med

Publisher iMedPub

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2010 Oct 8

PMID 20925949

Citations 136

Authors

Oscar Arias-Carrion

Maria Stamelou

Eric Murillo-Rodriguez

Manuel Menendez-Gonzalez

Ernst Poppel

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Memory is an essential element to adaptive behavior since it allows consolidation of past experience guiding the subject to consider them in future experiences. Among the endogenous molecules that participate in the consolidation of memory, including the drug-seeking reward, considered as a form of learning, is dopamine. This neurotransmitter modulates the activity of specific brain nucleus such as nuclei accumbens, putamen, ventral tegmental area (VTA), among others and synchronizes the activity of these nuclei to establish the neurobiological mechanism to set the hedonic element of learning. We review the experimental evidence that highlights the activity of different brain nuclei modulating the mechanisms whereby dopamine biases memory towards events that are of motivational significance.

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