How brains select between behaviours and coordinate their execution is a central question in neuroscience. The vertebrate periaqueductal gray (PAG) controls a remarkable range of instinctive behaviour...

Animals produce different vocalization types (e.g., contact calls, mating calls) to communicate in different behavioral contexts, but how the brain is organized to enable the production of different v...

For women in science, posterity has three fates in store. Some, like Marie Curie or Rosalyn Yalow, are recognised in their time and remain that way in the history books. Others, like Mary Anning or Ma...

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McGill researchers have discovered that serotonin, a brain chemical best known for its role in mood and mental health, also helps regulate attention. "Our findings suggest serotonin-producing neurons deep in the midbrain act like a dimmer switch on attention," said Arjun Krishnaswamy, associate professor in the Department of Physiology, who co-led the study with associate professor Erik Cook. The findings were published in Nature Communications.

【Elife】In threatening situations, animals exhibit a broad range of behavioral and autonomic responses. As such, a crucial adaptive

In this study, the authors find that environmental and socially transmitted pain expectations engage a shared cortico-midbrain circuit in which anterior cingulate cortex cholecystokinin projections to...

The ventral pallidum (VP) is necessary for reward processing and a key node in dopamine (DA) pathways. Yet the direct DA inputs have not been studied during reward learning. Here, we elucidate the role of VP DA in reward processing using circuit tracing, fibre photometry, and behavioural pharmacology in male rats. We show that VP receives both non-DA and DA inputs from the midbrain. During an instrumental reward conditioning paradigm, we characterized VP DA activity using a DA sensor (GRAB_DA1h) across learning, extinction, re-acquisition, and motivational test. Followed by pharmacological manipulation using the DA-antagonist (fluphenazine) in VP to demonstrate a causal role in reward learning and motivation. Together our findings advance the functional contributions of non-canonical mesolimbic DA pathways.

The ventral pallidum (VP) is necessary for reward processing and a key node in dopamine (DA) pathways. Yet the direct DA inputs have not been studied during reward learning. Here, we elucidate the role of VP DA in reward processing using circuit tracing, fibre photometry, and behavioural pharmacology in male rats. We show that VP receives both non-DA and DA inputs from the midbrain. During an instrumental reward conditioning paradigm, we characterized VP DA activity using a DA sensor (GRAB_DA1h) across learning, extinction, re-acquisition, and motivational test. Followed by pharmacological manipulation using the DA-antagonist (fluphenazine) in VP to demonstrate a causal role in reward learning and motivation. Together our findings advance the functional contributions of non-canonical mesolimbic DA pathways.

The human nigrostriatal pathway, comprising dopaminergic neurons in the ventral midbrain that project to the dorsolateral striatum, is essential for motor control and selectively vulnerable in Parkins...