Ventral tegmental area astrocytes orchestrate avoidance and approach behavior

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is a heterogeneous midbrain structure, containing neurons and astrocytes, that coordinates behaviors by integrating activity from numerous afferents. Within neuron-astrocyte networks, astrocytes control signals from distinct afferents in a circuit-specific manner, but whether this capacity scales up to drive motivated behavior has been undetermined. Using genetic and optical dissection strategies we report that...