The brain constantly integrates new sensory information, and associates environmental cues to outcomes, adjusting behavior to maximize reward and minimize unpleasant consequences. This process is critical for survival, and its dysregulation is a hallmark of several neuropsychiatric disorders, including addiction. Cues associated with the delivery of rewards, including drugs and food, can acquire valence, and change behavior. We and others showed that a brainstem region, the laterodorsal tegmentum (LDT) sends direct projections to the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a central brain region of reward processing. We further showed that LDT-NAc cholinergic projections are essential for reward value and motivation towards natural rewards. Yet, little is known about if and how reward signals (natural or drug-related) are encoded in these projections.
Our aim is to understand the role of LDT and its projections in reward-related behaviors, including natural rewards and drugs of abuse. We use a combination of tools including optogenetics, electrophysiology and live imaging with genetically encoded sensors together with behavior.
Understanding how the LDT actively participates in modulating reward signals is ultimately important to better understand disorders in which the reward system is altered such as addiction.