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Closing in on what motivates motivation

The neurotransmitter dopamine facilitates learning, motivation and movement. Evidence of its release independently of the activity of dopamine-producing neurons in rat brains forces a rethink of dopamine regulation.
  1. Margaret E. Rice

    1. Margaret E. Rice is in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Department of Neuroscience and Physiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, New York 10016, USA.

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Dopamine is a neurotransmitter molecule that influences brain pathways that are involved in motivation, movement, cognition and reward-driven learning. How it contributes to such varied behaviours is the subject of ongoing investigation. Writing in Nature, Mohebi et al.1 shed light on how dopamine release is regulated in the rat brain to accomplish different functions.

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Nature 570, 40-42 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01589-6

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