As with many drugs, L-dopa is a blunt tool. In Parkinson’s disease, parts of the dorsal striatum need more dopamine—but the rest of the brain doesn’t. When a person takes L-dopa, dopamine-producing neurons throughout the brain—including those located in the area that provides dopamine to the ventral striatum, the ventral tegmental area (VTA)—sponge it up and convert it to dopamine. This can lead to abnormally elevated levels of dopamine in the ventral striatum.
ventral striatum is same as nucleus accumbens.
