Major
Psychology
Anticipated Graduation Year
2026
Access Type
Open Access
Abstract
Drugs of abuse and rewarding stimuli increase dopamine (DA) activity in the mesolimbic system, particularly within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Mesopontine regions, including the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDTg) and pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg), regulate VTA DA activity and contribute to drug sensitization, though their afferent inputs remain poorly defined. The lateral hypothalamus (LH), a key motivational region, projects to both the LDTg and PPTg, suggesting a pathway for modulating mesolimbic DA signaling. Using optogenetics, this study will selectively stimulate LH–PPTg projections in rats to examine their role in motivation, feeding, reward processing, and addiction.
Faculty Mentors & Instructors
Dr. Stephan Steidl, Department of Psychology
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Testing the Motivational Effects of Exciting LH to PPTg and LDTg Projections in Rats
Drugs of abuse and rewarding stimuli increase dopamine (DA) activity in the mesolimbic system, particularly within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and nucleus accumbens (NAcc). Mesopontine regions, including the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus (LDTg) and pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg), regulate VTA DA activity and contribute to drug sensitization, though their afferent inputs remain poorly defined. The lateral hypothalamus (LH), a key motivational region, projects to both the LDTg and PPTg, suggesting a pathway for modulating mesolimbic DA signaling. Using optogenetics, this study will selectively stimulate LH–PPTg projections in rats to examine their role in motivation, feeding, reward processing, and addiction.