Topic: aversive value

To survive, individuals use past experience to select an appropriate behaviour (for instance, approaching a previously rewarding, or avoid a previously punished, place). Past experience will also influence how each ongoing experience is assigned with a positive or negative value. The ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic (DA) neuronal circuitry is extensively studied in reward-motivated behaviours. Their role in punished ones is less known. Some studies showed that an aversive event may lead either to an activation or an inhibition of VTA DA neurons, suggesting a role for DA neurons in the