The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a group of neurons close to the midline on the floor of the midbrain, at the top of the brainstem. It is one of the brain’s two main groups of dopamine neurons, the source of the reward pathways. [1][2]
The 3D brain needs JavaScript. The text below still says where the ventral tegmental area is and what it does.
Opens cut by a side (sagittal) slice through the midbrain, which holds the ventral tegmental area. Drag to turn, pinch or scroll to zoom, tap any part to name it; .
Not a separate shape in this atlas; lit: the part that holds it. Lit: the whole midbrain. The ventral tegmental area is a group of neurons in the floor of the midbrain near its midline; it has no shape of its own in the BodyParts3D model, so nothing is drawn at a guessed point. [1]
Lit here: the midbrain, the part that holds the ventral tegmental area — see it on its own page.
It lies close to the midline on the floor (the ventral side) of the midbrain; the red nucleus lies to its side and the fibres of the oculomotor nerve run on its lower inner side. [1]
The substantia nigra lies beside it, further out on each side; the two are the midbrain’s dopamine cell groups. [1][2]
“Tegmentum” is Latin for covering: the tegmentum is the part of the midbrain below the tectum, and this area is its lowest (ventral) part near the midline. [1][2]
What it does
Its neurons serve several functions in the reward system, motivation and cognition. [1]
Its dopamine neurons fire in a pattern consistent with a reward prediction error: more when an outcome is better than expected, less when it is worse, a signal for learning which cues lead to reward. [1][3]
Not only dopamine: recent studies put dopamine neurons at about 50–60% of its neurons (older work said 77%), with sizeable groups of GABA neurons and a small share of glutamate neurons. [1]
Size, honestly: one count found about 25,000 neurons in the mouse VTA and about 450,000 cell bodies in the VTA of a 33-year-old man; the model cannot measure it, so no size is stated. [1]
Connections
Its two main outputs are the mesolimbic pathway, to the nucleus accumbens of the striatum, and the mesocortical pathway, to the prefrontal cortex. [1][4]
It receives glutamate input from the prefrontal cortex, and a GABA “brake” from the rostromedial tegmental nucleus at its tail; the amygdala and the hippocampus are among the other areas tied into the same reward circuit. [1][3]
Other names
Abbreviated VTA; also the ventral tegmentum or the ventral tegmental area of Tsai. [1]
Size
The model has no shape for the ventral tegmental area itself, so it is not measured here. The midbrain that holds it measures about 29 mm front to back, 17 mm top to bottom and 29 mm side to side on this model (the box it fits in, not its volume). [5]
Facts describe anatomy and normal function only. The 3D model is the adult male BodyParts3D brain (credits and licence); real brains vary in size and shape, so its measurements describe one model, not anyone’s brain.