The ventral striatum, hypersociability, and sleepwalking at year's end.

This month's CNS Spectrums introduces the exciting new clinical column series "Brain Regions of Interest," which is overseen by Michael Trimble, MD, FRCP, FRPsych. This column will include articles on the neuroanatomy of key brain structures important for neuropsychiatry, functional brain circuitry, and the clinical neurosciences of psychiatry and neurology. I can think of no region that is of greater topical interest than the ventral striatum, including the nucleus accumbens, which serves as an interface not only between the limbic and motor systems but also between psychiatry and neurology. It plays a unique role in the emotional and motivational aspects of behavior as well as clinical entities such as substance and behavioral addictions, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and schizophrenia.