Ventral Tegmental Area
links: Neuroanatomy Neural Circuit reference: The wiki page is pretty rich 11-3-2021
Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) #
- Subvided into the nucleus paranigralis, nucleus parabrachialis pigmentosus, nucleus interfascicularis, and the nucleus linearis caudalis and rostralis.
- A ‘group of neurons’. The origin of dopaminergic neurons of the Mesolimbic Pathway-Mesocortical Pathway; ~60% Dopaminergic projections, and then GABAergic Interneurons/projection neurons.
- It projects to:
- Amygdala
- Entorhinal cortex
- Cingulate gyrus
- Hippocampus
- Nucleus accumbens
- Olfactory bulb
- Prefrontal cortex
- It projects to:
- The tail of the ventral tegmental area (tVTA)
- Receives Glutamatergic input from the prefrontal cortex, and inputs from other areas like NAcc, pallidum, etc. Most of the proections are to the ventromedial striatum. R
- Receives GABAergic input from:
- Nucleus accumbens
- ventral pallidum
- Dorsal raphe nucleus
- Lateral hypotahalmus
- Periaqueductal gray