Wish it was easier to share links to things behind paywalls, have thought of hosting all the papers I read but am reticent about getting DMCA’d over them. Are there better options that are relatively stable (at least for a few years?)
Glutamatergic and GABAergic neurons in pontine central gray mediate opposing valence-specific behaviors through a global network – The upper pons is where valence integration of basal ganglia and deep cerebellar nuclei calculations generally occur. If you also guessed this is where “consciousness” happens, you’re correct.
Opposing Contributions of GABAergic and Glutamatergic Ventral Pallidal Neurons to Motivational Behaviors – The upper pons does top level mapping of goal behavior, however nearly all nuclei have dorsal and ventral valence integration for the specific function of that nuclei. Bonus question, what happens when the nuclei level integrations don’t match the expected top level map in the pons?
Optogenetic inhibition of the caudal substantia nigra inflates behavioral responding to uncertain threat and safety – Can we manipulate the integration maps in the pons and ultimately the valence of specific behaviors? Almost certainly.
Neural circuits provide insights into reward and aversion – Are “positive” and “negative”, “reward” and “fear”, etc all just valence calculations? Yeah probably.
Cholinergic activity reflects reward expectations and predicts behavioral responses – If we watch these circuits can we predict expressed behavior? Somewhat. Not quite there yet, but it’s there.
Effects of early life stress and subsequent re-exposure to stress on neuronal activity in the lateral habenula – Do adverse events during development overdevelop/underdevelop valence for specific functions? Sometimes, depending on how sensitive the brainstem maps are.
Salience to remember: VTA-IC dopaminergic pathway activity is necessary for object recognition memory formation – This isn’t completely supported by this work, but dopamine/octopamine pathways in general are discrete salience channel data. We have multiple channels of discrete salience calculation.