← all shorts

Concept

Ventral tegmental area

A brain with a central orange neuron resembling a spider, symbolizing the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and its role in producing dopamine.

A small group of dopamine-producing neurons in the midbrain, projecting forward to the nucleus accumbens and prefrontal cortex along what is sometimes called the mesolimbic pathway. The VTA fires when an outcome exceeds expectation, whether unexpected food, unexpected social warmth or an unexpectedly funny joke, and is the principal target of stimulant drugs, which hijack its signal to flag their own consumption as worth repeating.

Mentioned in 1 article