The nucleus accumbens in a brain region considered to be important in the regulation of appetitive behavior and reinforcement. The accumbens receives afferent input from corticolimbic and thalamic structures, which is primarily coded by excitatory amino acids (EAAs). The present studies investigated the role of EAA input to the nucleus accumbens in feeding behavior in rats, in two recently char...

The multifaceted concept of impulsivity implies that different impulsivity aspects, mediated by different neural processes, influence behavior at different levels. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is a key component of the neural processes regulating impulsivity. In this review, we discuss the findings of lesion studies in animals and functional imaging studies in humans focusing on the role of the ...

A reliable method of directly measuring endogenously generated nitric oxide (NO) in real-time and in various brain regions is presented. An extensive characterisation of a previously described amperometric sensor has been carried out in the prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens of freely moving rats. Systemic administration of saline caused a transient increase in signal from baseline levels ...

The nucleus accumbens, a brain region involved in motivation, attention, and reward, receives substantial glutamatergic innervation from many limbic structures. This excitatory glutamatergic input plays an integral role in both normal and pathophysiological states. Despite the importance of glutamatergic transmission in the nucleus accumbens, the specific receptor subtypes that mediate glutamat...

Rats learned to lever-press when such behavior was reinforced by microinjections of phencyclidine (PCP) directly into the ventromedial (shell) region of nucleus accumbens, indicating that the drug has direct rewarding actions in that region. Separate groups of rats learned to lever-press when reinforced with microinjections of dizoclipine (MK-801) or 3-((+/-)2-carboxypiperazin-4yl)propyl-1-phos...

Selective dopamine depletion within the medial prefrontal cortex in rats is known to enhance dopamine and norepinephrine levels in the nucleus accumbens and to induce characteristic behavioral disturbances. The present study was designed to determine levels of adrenaline, apart from dopamine and norepinephrine, and metabolites in the nucleus accumbens after prefrontocortical dopamine depletion....

Both cocaine and social interaction place preference conditioning lead to increased neuronal expression of the immediate early gene EGR1 in the nucleus accumbens, a central region of the reward pathway, suggesting that both drug and natural rewards may be processed in similar brain regions. In order to gain novel insights into the intrinsic in vitro electrical activity of the nucleus accumbens ...

Chronic cocaine use leads to biochemical and behavioral changes that can persist for weeks to months after drug administration is discontinued. Alterations in gene expression in the mammalian CNS may contribute to these long-term neural consequences of cocaine abuse. A combined in situ transcription-PCR amplification strategy was used to isolate a novel mRNA, NAC-1, from the nucleus accumbens o...

Background Drug cues recruit prelimbic cortex neurons that project to ipsilateral nucleus accumbens core. However, it is not known if the same is true for prelimbic cortex projections that decussate to innervate contralateral nucleus accumbens core. Further, a role for prelimbic cortex dopamine signaling in cued reinstatement of cocaine seeking has not been shown. Methods We assessed Fos expr...