Gabba is an inhibitory neurotransmitter . You don't need to know too much about it to just understand that nicotine both increases dopamine but also decreases the activity of Gaba . And so this is like pushing on the accelerator for dopamine , but also removing the brake .
This is what gives nicotine , it's rewarding properties , it increases motivation , it tends to give a not so subtle but very transient increase in feelings of well being and alertness and motivation . And that's because of the increase in dopamine caused by nicotine directly within the nucleus . Accumbens .
And again , that's all mediated through this mesolimbic reward pathway involving the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens . So if you can conceptualize even just 5% of what I just told you or even if you can just remember , nicotine increases dopamine and that's why it feels so good . It makes you want more of it .
But if you want to , that's fine too , the ventral tegmental area or VT A connects to another area called the nucleus accumbens . Now , here's what's very important nicotine triggers the release of dopamine from the nucleus accumbens . This is what gives nicotine , it's rewarding properties , it increases motivation , it tends to give a not so subtle but very transient increase in feelings of well being and alertness and motivation .
And so this is like pushing on the accelerator for dopamine , but also removing the brake . So there's a two pronged effect of nicotine on reinforcement reward , dopamine related pathways , the feel good motivation pathways and that is an increase in dopamine and a decrease in Gaba . And again , that's all mediated through this mesolimbic reward pathway involving the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens .
