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It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into dopamine pathways. ()

The mesocortical pathway is a neural pathway that connects the ventral tegmentum to the cerebral cortex, particularly the frontal lobes. It is one of the four major dopamine pathways in the brain. It is essential to the normal cognitive function of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (part of the frontal lobe), and is thought to be involved in motivation and emotional response.

This pathway may be the brain system that is abnormal or functioning abnormally in psychoses, such as schizophrenia^[1]. It is thought to be associated with the negative symptoms of schizophrenia which include avolition, alogia and flat affect. The pathway is closely associated with the mesolimbic pathway, also known as the reward pathway.

Other dopamine pathways

Other major dopamine pathways include:

• mesolimbic pathway
• nigrostriatal pathway
• tuberoinfundibular pathway

References

1. ^ Diaz, Jaime. How Drugs Influence Behavior. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1996.

See also

• dopamine
• schizophrenia

External links

• Diagram

Wikipedia content modification information:

• This page was last modified on 3 May 2008, at 15:14.

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