User:Cosmic Hypernova/Mesolimbic pathway

Lead
The mesolimbic pathway, sometimes referred to as the reward pathway, is a dopaminergic pathway in the brain. The pathway connects the ventral tegmental area in the midbrain to the ventral striatum of the basal ganglia in the forebrain. The ventral striatum includes the nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle.

''' Apathy has been associated with changes in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathways.  The release of dopamine from the mesolimbic pathway into the nucleus accumbens regulates incentive salience (e.g. motivation and desire for rewarding stimuli) and facilitates reinforcement and reward-related motor function learning.  ;  I t may also play a role in the subjective perception of pleasure ; however, dopamine's role in reward is not exclusive. ''' The dysregulation of the mesolimbic pathway and its output neurons in the nucleus accumbens plays a significant role in the development and maintenance of an addiction.

Function
The mesolimbic pathway regulates  various cognitive processes including  incentive salience, motivation, reinforcement learning, and fear, among other cognitive processes.

The mesolimbic pathway is involved in motivational cognition. Depletion of dopamine in this pathway, or lesions at its site of origin, decrease the extent to which an animal is willing to go to obtain a reward (e.g. the number of lever presses for intravenous nicotine delivery in rats or time spent searching for food). Dopaminergic drugs are also able to increase the extent an animal is willing to go to obtain a reward. Moreover, the firing rate of neurons in the mesolimbic pathway increases during anticipation of reward, which may explain craving. Mesolimbic dopamine release was once thought to be the primary mediator of pleasure, but is now believed to have only a minor or secondary role in pleasure perception.