Separating analgesia from reward within the ventral tegmental area

• Published in: Neuroscience Vol. 263; pp. 72 - 87
• Main Authors: Schifirneţ, E, Bowen, S.E, Borszcz, G.S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier 28-03-2014
• Subjects: Analgesia; Animals; Atropine - pharmacology; Biological and medical sciences; Carbachol - pharmacology; Cholinergic Agonists - pharmacology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Male; Mecamylamine - pharmacology; Muscarinic Antagonists - pharmacology; Neurology; Nicotinic Antagonists - pharmacology; Pain Threshold - drug effects; Rats; Rats, Long-Evans; Reward; Ventral Tegmental Area - drug effects; Ventral Tegmental Area - metabolism; Vertebrates: nervous system and sense organs; aCC; CPP; vocalizations during shock; VTA; laterodorsal tegmental nucleus; multivariate analysis of variance; conditioned place preference; pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus; analgesia; LTDg; anterior VTA; NAc; muscarinic; posterior VTA; analysis of variance; ANOVA; ventrolateral periaqueductal gray; MANOVA; anterior cingulate cortex; reward; pain; VDS; nicotinic; pVTA; addiction; spinal motor reflex; nucleus accumbens; aVTA; tyrosine hydroxylase; TH; ventral tegmental area; PPTg; vPAG; VAD; SMR; vocalization afterdischarge; Analgesia; Cholinergic receptor; Pain; Central nervous system; Muscarinic receptor; Reward; Ventral tegmental area; Encephalon
• ISSN: 0306-4522; 1873-7544
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2014.01.009

Highlights • Cholinergic activation of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) generates analgesia and reward. • Analgesia and reward can be neuropharmacologically separated within the posterior VTA (pVTA). • Nicotinic receptor antagonism within pVTA fails to attenuate analgesia, but prevents reward. • A new subdivision of the VTA (midVTA) was identified. • Cholinergic activation of the midVTA failed to support either analgesia or reward.