The Ventral Subiculum-VTA Loop: The Key Area of Reinforcement Learning and Memory Detection for a Rewarding Stimulus – A Personal View Point

Abstract

The ventral subiculum region of the hippocampus (vSUB) is involved in wide range of cognitive and neurological processes. Some of the most common processes that incorporate the vSUB include reinforcement learning, sensorimotor integration, context-reward associations, and addictive behaviors [1-5], stress, anxiety, fear, schizophrenia, psychosis, Parkinson’s disease [2], sleep [6], regulation of social behavior [7], other neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s [8], ... etc. Dopamine (DA) neurons of the midbrain, both from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) are critically important in reinforcement learning and the processing of information associated with reward [3,9]. Due to their unique and context dependent firing behaviors in response to the presence and absence of both expected and unexpected rewards, these neurons are among few of the most widely investigated cells in the CNS. Consequently, by exploiting this unique behavior, researchers have gotten the largest research grants to investigate some of the hottest topics in the area of neuroscience including reinforcement learning, reward processing and the prediction of reward values, addiction and