The nucleus accumbens is a key region that mediates aspects of immediate and long-term adaptations to various stimuli. For example, both repeated amphetamine and pair-bonding increase dopamine D1 receptor binding in the nucleus accumbens of the monogamous prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). This upregulation has significant and stimulus-dependent behavioral consequences. A promising candidate ...

Numerous reports have demonstrated augmented cocaine-evoked release of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens of rats pre-treated with cocaine. However, the extent to which repeated cocaine injections affect basal levels of dopamine is unclear. There have been reports of increases, decreases, or no change in basal levels of extracellular accumbal dopamine resulting from repeated psychostimulant admi...

Identification of the brain areas that contribute to pain is an essential undertaking towards understanding persistent pain. Areas of the basal ganglia have been proposed to play important roles in nociception as previous studies have determined the involvement of the substantia nigra pars compacta and the dorsolateral striatum in pain. The purpose of the present study was therefore to expand u...

Real-world decisions about reward often involve a complex counterbalance of risk and value. Although the nucleus accumbens has been implicated in the underlying neural substrate, its criticality to human behaviour remains an open question, best addressed with interventional methodology that probes the behavioural consequences of focal neural modulation. Combining a psychometric index of risky d...

The anatomical organization and electrophysiological characteristics of a projection from the nucleus accumbens to anteroventral parts of the globus pallidus and to a subpallidal region that includes the substantia innominata (SI), the lateral preoptic area (LPO), and anterior parts of the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA) were investigated in the rat. Autoradiographic experiments, with injection...

In vivo microdialysis was used to monitor extracellular concentrations of dopamine (DA), and its metabolites dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) and homovanillic acid (HVA) in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum of sexually active female rats during tests of locomotor activity, exposure to a novel chamber, exposure to sex odors, the presentation of a sexually active male rat, and copulatio...

The relationship between postural instability and subcortical structure in AD has received less attention. The aims of this study were to assess whether there are differences in the ability to control balance between Alzheimer's disease (AD) and controls, and to investigate the association between subcortical gray matter volumes and postural instability in AD.We enrolled 107 consecutive AD pati...

The nucleus accumbens plays a key role in reinforcement-guided behaviors. Here, we report that electrophysiological oscillatory phase synchrony between the two nuclei accumbens may play a crucial role in using negative feedback to guide decision making. We recorded local field potentials from the human nucleus accumbens and the medial frontal cortex (via surface EEG) from patients who had deep ...

Groups of control rats without surgery or groups of rats prepared with surgical lesions of the septal nuclei, amygdala, cingulate cortex, accumbens nucleus, section of the fornix, or sham surgical operations, were tested in a simple autonomic conditioning situation (conditioned defecation). Control rats and rats with lesions of the accumbens nucleus were also tested in a straight alley maze und...