中腦邊緣通路

中腦邊緣通路（mesolimbic pathway）又稱獎賞途徑（reward pathway），是腦中的多巴胺通路^[1]。此通路連接中腦的腹側被蓋區以及前腦基底核內的紋狀體。紋狀體中包括有伏隔核及嗅節結（英語：Olfactory tubercle）^[2]。

參考文獻

1. Dreyer JL. New insights into the roles of microRNAs in drug addiction and neuroplasticity. Genome Med. 2010, 2 (12): 92. PMC 3025434 . PMID 21205279. doi:10.1186/gm213.
2. Ikemoto S. Brain reward circuitry beyond the mesolimbic dopamine system: a neurobiological theory. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2010, 35 (2): 129–50. PMC 2894302 . PMID 20149820. doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2010.02.001. Recent studies on intracranial self-administration of neurochemicals (drugs) found that rats learn to self-administer various drugs into the mesolimbic dopamine structures–the posterior ventral tegmental area, medial shell nucleus accumbens and medial olfactory tubercle. ... In the 1970s it was recognized that the olfactory tubercle contains a striatal component, which is filled with GABAergic medium spiny neurons receiving glutamatergic inputs form cortical regions and dopaminergic inputs from the VTA and projecting to the ventral pallidum just like the nucleus accumbens
   Figure 3: The ventral striatum and self-administration of amphetamine （頁面存檔備份，存於網際網路檔案館）