Cognitive performance in aged rats is associated with differences in distinctive neuronal populations in the ventral tegmental area and altered synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus.

"Conflict of interest The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The author(s) declared that they were an editorial board member of Frontiers, at the time of submission. This had no impact on the peer review process and the final decision."

"The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The research project was funded from the private bag (GL). The research was partially funded by “Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale” (PRIN) 2017 (2017YH3SXK) by the Italian Ministry of Research and by Hybrid Hub (H2UB) – POS-T4-AN10 2022 by the Italian Ministry of Health. The project was also partially funded by a VDSEE completion grant."