VTA plays an important role in a number of processes, including [1]
- motivational salience ("want")
- associative learning (if a neutral/novel experience is paired with "painful" or "enjoyable" innate instinct, it elicits a response on its own: money or your favourite sports team winning)
Via the mesolimbic pathway, from VTA dopamine is signalled to the NAcc, which also has similar functions: processing of motivation, aversion, reward (i.e., incentive salience, pleasure, and positive reinforcement), and reinforcement learning.
As of October 2017, hedonic hotspots have been identified in subcompartments within the nucleus accumbens shell, ventral pallidum, parabrachial nucleus, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and insular cortex.
Microinjections of opioids, endocannabinoids, and orexin are capable of enhancing liking in these hotspots. [2]
The second Wikipedia link explains the difference between primary and extrinsic reward, "wanting" vs "liking", anhedonia vs aversive salience, and the known information about addiction and neuroanatomy so far.
- motivational salience ("want")
- associative learning (if a neutral/novel experience is paired with "painful" or "enjoyable" innate instinct, it elicits a response on its own: money or your favourite sports team winning)
- positively-valenced emotions ("happy", "content") emotions)
- orgasm
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ventral_tegmental_area
Via the mesolimbic pathway, from VTA dopamine is signalled to the NAcc, which also has similar functions: processing of motivation, aversion, reward (i.e., incentive salience, pleasure, and positive reinforcement), and reinforcement learning.
As of October 2017, hedonic hotspots have been identified in subcompartments within the nucleus accumbens shell, ventral pallidum, parabrachial nucleus, orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), and insular cortex.
Microinjections of opioids, endocannabinoids, and orexin are capable of enhancing liking in these hotspots. [2]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reward_system#Pleasure_centers
The second Wikipedia link explains the difference between primary and extrinsic reward, "wanting" vs "liking", anhedonia vs aversive salience, and the known information about addiction and neuroanatomy so far.