Ventral Striatum

Nucleus accumbens – implicated in motivation and reward (Epstein and Silbersweig, 2015) Dopamine reward processing – initial phase of nonspecifically and broadly assessing all sensory input, then identifying more specific items of value (Schultz 2016)

The nucleus accumbens comprises of shell and core.

• Shell: associated with aversion to nonrewarding stimuli, connections to limbic structures (Floresco 2015; Xia et al, 2017)

• Core: associated with approach behavior, connections to dorsal striatum (Floresco 2015; Xia et al, 2017)

References

Epstein, J. & Silbersweig, D. The Neuropsychiatric Spectrum of Motivational Disorders. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin. Neurosci. 27, 7–18 (2015). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25716483/

Floresco, S. B. The Nucleus Accumbens: An Interface Between Cognition, Emotion, and Action. Annu. Rev. Psychol. 66, 25–52 (2015). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25251489/

Schultz, W. Dopamine reward prediction-error signalling: a two-component response. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 17, 183–195 (2016). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26865020/

Xia, X. et al. Multimodal connectivity-based parcellation reveals a shell-core dichotomy of the human nucleus accumbens: Multimodal Parcellation of the Human NAc. Hum. Brain Mapp. 38, 3878–3898 (2017). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28548226/