mesocortical pathway
Article
mesocortical pathway is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 2 times across 2 issues between September 30, 2022 and October 31, 2022. The archive places it in contexts such as “In PFC (via the mesocortical pathway), it draws attentional resources”; “in PFC (via the mesocortical pathway)“. It most often appears alongside dopamine, fMRI, PFC.
Metadata
- Category: Concepts
- Mention count: 2
- Issue count: 2
- First seen: September 30, 2022
- Last seen: October 31, 2022
Appears In
Related Pages
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- dopamine (2 shared issues)
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- fMRI (2 shared issues)
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- PFC (2 shared issues)
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- Scott (2 shared issues)
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- ventral striatum (2 shared issues)
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- VTA (2 shared issues)
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- 5HT2A serotonin (1 shared issues)
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- A Mind Without Craving (1 shared issues)
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- acetylcholine (1 shared issues)
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- ACX (1 shared issues)
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- Alice (1 shared issues)
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- Andres (1 shared issues)
External Links
Source Context
Recovered passages from the original issue text. When the raw archive preserved outbound links inside the source passage, they are listed directly under the quote.
Now, what does the released dopamine do? In PFC (via the mesocortical pathway), it draws attentional resources to the surprising stimulus and its plausible causes, gating out the processing of other, less relevant stimuli. Simultaneously, in NAc, it strengthens connections between PFC inputs and the endorphin-releasing cells, thereby wiring together the hedonic features of the reward and the sensory features of any cues predictive of it. This imbues the cue with the ability to release the GABAergic brake on VTA DA neurons all by itself. Phenomenologically, it results in us "liking" the cue as much (or nearly as much) as we like the reward (this is what allows, e.g., animal trainers to reinforce behavior with only the sound of a clicker that has previously been paired with food).
Now, what does the released dopamine do? In PFC (via the mesocortical pathway), it draws attentional resources to the surprising stimulus and its plausible causes, gating out the processing of other, less relevant stimuli. Simultaneously, in NAc, it strengthens connections between PFC inputs and the endorphin-releasing cells, thereby wiring together the hedonic features of the reward and the sensory features of any cues predictive of it. This imbues the cue with the ability to release the GABAergic brake on VTA DA neurons all by itself. Phenomenologically, it results in us "liking" the cue as much (or nearly as much) as we like the reward (this is what allows, e.g., animal trainers to reinforce behavior with only the sound of a clicker that has previously been paired with food).