{"doi":"10.3389/fncir.2022.867053","title":"Anatomy and Function of Ventral Tegmental Area Glutamate Neurons","abstract":"<jats:p>The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is well known for regulating reward consumption, learning, memory, and addiction behaviors through mediating dopamine (DA) release in downstream regions. Other than DA neurons, the VTA is known to be heterogeneous and contains other types of neurons, including glutamate neurons. In contrast to the well-studied and established functions of DA neurons, the role of VTA glutamate neurons is understudied, presumably due to their relatively small quantity and a lack of effective means to study them. Yet, emerging studies have begun to reveal the importance of glutamate release from VTA neurons in regulating diverse behavioral repertoire through a complex intra-VTA and long-range neuronal network. In this review, we summarize the features of VTA glutamate neurons from three perspectives, namely, cellular properties, neural connections, and behavioral functions. Delineation of VTA glutamatergic pathways and their interactions with VTA DA neurons in regulating behaviors may reveal previously unappreciated functions of the VTA in other physiological processes.</jats:p>","journal":"Frontiers in Neural Circuits","year":2022,"id":30902,"datarank":2.121414736135093,"base_score":4.477336814478207,"endowment":4.477336814478207,"self_citation_contribution":0.6716005221717312,"citation_network_contribution":1.4498142139633619,"self_endowment_contribution":0.6716005221717312,"citer_contribution":1.4498142139633619,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":87,"citer_count":85,"citers_with_citation_signal":63,"citers_with_endowment":63,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":166840,"name":"Qingchun Tong","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":127540,"name":"Jing Cai","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"base_score":4.477336814478207,"endowment":4.477336814478207,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"35669454","pmcid":"PMC9164627","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4285742712","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"NIDDK NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 DK114279","title":null},{"funder_name":"NINDS NIH HHS","grant_id":"R21 NS108091","title":null},{"funder_name":"NIDDK NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 DK109934","title":null},{"funder_name":"NIDDK NIH HHS","grant_id":"R01 DK120858","title":null},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"1R01DK114279-01A1","title":"A direct LH to PVH projection for antagonistic regulation of feeding"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5R01DK120858-04","title":"5-HT NEURONS INTEGRATE NEURAL INPUTS TO REGULATE FOOD INTAKE"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"5R01DK109934-09","title":"Genetically Dissecting Chorinergic Signaling in Body Weight Control"},{"funder_name":"National Institutes of Health","grant_id":"1R21NS108091-01A1","title":"To explore the mechanism underlying developmental compensations in PVH neurons"}],"total_grants":8,"fwci":8.2774,"citation_percentile":0.98798495,"influential_citations":2,"citation_trend":[{"year":2022,"count":4},{"year":2023,"count":18},{"year":2024,"count":36},{"year":2025,"count":24},{"year":2026,"count":5}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2022.867053/pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2022.867053/pdf","host_type":"GOLD"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2022.867053/pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fncir.2022.867053/full","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2022.867053","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35669454","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://digitalcommons.library.tmc.edu/uthgsbs_docs/3191","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://doaj.org/article/f9581e2728ea4a77b9645f826dc18e0b","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/9164627","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9164627","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC9164627?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncir.2022.867053","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior","Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research","Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling","Medicine","Biology","0301 basic medicine","0303 health sciences","03 medical and health sciences","Dopamine","Dopaminergic Neurons","Glutamic Acid","Reward","Ventral Tegmental Area"],"mesh_terms":["Dopamine","Reward","Ventral Tegmental Area","Glutamic Acid","Dopaminergic Neurons"],"keywords":["Ventral tegmental area","Neuroscience","Glutamatergic","Glutamate receptor","Dopamine","Biology","Neuron","Psychology","Dopaminergic","VGluT2","Addiction","Reward","Vta","Neural Circuits","Dopaminergic Neurons","Glutamic Acid","Neurosciences. 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