Matthew J. Wanat

This study shows that activating astrocyte Gq signaling in the ventral tegmental area affects cocaine-associated behaviors differently in drug-naive and cocaine-experienced rats.

This study shows that stress affects reward learning differently in female rats depending on their estrous cycle stage and prior stress exposure history.

This study investigates how nucleus accumbens dopamine responds to reward-related stimuli during trace conditioning, finding bidirectional dopamine changes correlate with response latency.

This study shows that dopamine receptor antagonism affects Pavlovian learning differently depending on training phase and task type, with persistent deficits only in reward size tasks during the expression phase.

This study investigates sex differences in behavioral responses and dopamine release during Pavlovian learning in rats, finding no sex differences in cue-evoked dopamine but differences in reward-evoked dopamine and behavioral responding.

This study examines dopamine release and its role in early Pavlovian learning in the NAc core and medial NAc shell, finding regional differences in dopamine responses and behavioral control.

The paper shows that sunk temporal costs increase preference for initially less desirable rewards, and this effect depends on the basolateral amygdala and retrosplenial cortex in rats.

This study shows acute stress enhances appetitive learning by increasing dopamine release in the ventral lateral striatum, which is blocked by dopamine receptor antagonists.

The paper shows that changes in subjective food preference due to temporal costs do not require dopamine signaling or the orbital frontal cortex.

This study shows that prior cocaine exposure eliminates CRF's ability to suppress motivation for food rewards but not cocaine intake, suggesting altered neuropeptide function in the VTA.

This study shows that VTA astrocytes regulate avoidance behavior by modulating local GABA neuron activity, which inhibits dopamine neurons and blocks reward preference.

This study shows that VTA projections to the basal ganglia are sufficient to guide vocal learning in zebra finches through optogenetic manipulation.