Behavioral functions of the mesolimbic dopaminergic system: an affective neuroethological perspective.

TL;DR: A comprehensive comparative analysis of the two neural circuits of social behavior network and mesolimbic reward system concludes that they were already present in early vertebrates and proposes that these circuits form a larger social decision‐making (SDM) network that regulates adaptive behavior.

TL;DR: The results demonstrate that reward has an impact on vision that is independent of its role in the strategic establishment of endogenous attention and suggests that reward plays an important and undervalued role in attentional control.

TL;DR: Since all vertebrates appear to have some capacity for primal affective feelings, the implications for animal-welfare and how the authors ethically treat other animals are vast.

TL;DR: The structure of opponency is considered in terms of previous biases about the nature of the decision problems that animals face, the conflicts that may arise between Pavlovian and instrumental responses, and an additional spectrum joining invigoration to inhibition to shed light on aspects of the role of serotonin and its interactions with dopamine.

TL;DR: These studies show that phencyclidine activates the mesolimbic pathway through a mechanism in the prefrontal cortex, possibly by disinhibiting the cortical circuit and activating corticofugal glutamatergic release in the ventral tegmental area.

TL;DR: Stimulation of both D1 and D2 class receptors appears to be required for DA to enhance glutamate-induced firing of striatal neurons.

TL;DR: DA release in the nucleus accumbens was related to the amount of food ingested, which is consistent with a direct relationship between MDS activity and food reward.