1.Nicotine directly increases dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens, but it also increases glutamate levels which gets the ventral tegmentum neurons to release more dopamine onto the nucleus accumbens.
2.For example, increased dopamine in the mesolimbic system, a reward pathway composed of the ventral tegmentum and the nucleus accumbens causes pleasure, improved attention and mental processing, and working memory.
3.For example, increased concentrations of dopamine in the brain's reward pathway, which includes the nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmentum, and prefrontal cortex, produce intense feelings of euphoria, pleasure, and the emotional " high" associated with cocaine.
4.Nicotine also decreasing the activity of inhibitory GABA neurons in the ventral tegmentum, so by inhibiting the inhibitory neurons there's a double negative, which means that this is one more way to create an increase in dopamine levels.