Depression is one of the most prevalent psychiatric diseases, affecting the quality of life of millions of people. Ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopaminergic (DA) neurons are notably involved in evaluating the emotional and motivational value of a stimulus, in detecting reward prediction errors, in motivated learning, or in the propensity to initiate or withhold an action. DA neurons are thus involved in psychopathologies associated with perturbations of emotional and motivational states, such as depression. In this review, we focus on adaptations/alterations of the VTA, particularly of the VTA DA neurons, in the three most frequently used animal models of depression: learned helplessness, chronic mild stress and chronic social defeat.
Keywords: Depression; Dopamine; Environmental stress; Social stress; Ventral tegmental area.