Chapter 29 The nucleus accumbens: gateway for limbic structures to reach the motor system?

The basal ganglia: a vertebrate solution to the selection problem?

“…It is possible that the division of the basal ganglia into limbic, associative and motor domains could reflect the presence of such a functional hierarchy. For example, there is evidence that many of the major motivational systems of the brain have connections which converge on the limbic domain of the striatum 2,35,51 . It is possible therefore, that competitions to decide the general course of action could be resolved within limbic domains of the basal ganglia.…”

Behavioral Electrophysiology of Psychostimulants

“…Dorsal striatum, which is associated with the classic extrapyramidal motor system, forms the neostriatum or main part of the caudate-putamen complex (Parent and Hazrati, 1995). Ventral striatum, in contrast, includes the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), which has been described as a 'gateway' or 'interface' allowing limbic structures access to the motor system (Groenewegen et al, 1996). Although these striatal regions may indeed serve different aspects of behavior, they share an anatomy characterized by overlapping connections embedded in an array of compartments and subterritories (Heimer et al, 1995).…”

NMDA, But Not Dopamine D2, Receptors in the Rat Nucleus Accumbens Are Involved in Guidance of Instrumental Behavior by Stimuli Predicting Reward Magnitude

“…Accordingly, the speed of instrumental responses has been found to be a function of the expected reward magnitude because reaction times (RTs) of rats were shortened by expectancy of signaled high reward (Brown and Bowman, 1995). Likewise, RTs of reaching movements (Hollerman et al, 1998) or saccadic eye movements (Kawagoe et al, 1998) of primates decreased as a function of the relative attractiveness of the expected reward.The nucleus accumbens (NAc) as an interface between limbic and motor structures (Groenewegen et al, 1996) may play a key role in the control of goal-directed actions by reward (Mogenson et al, 1980). It is generally assumed that the NAc subserves motivated behaviors such as feeding, sexual behavior, or exploratory locomotion elicited by primary reward and by conditioned stimuli associated with reward Everitt, 1990;Mitchell and Gratton, 1994;Watanabe, 1996).…”

“…The nucleus accumbens (NAc) as an interface between limbic and motor structures (Groenewegen et al, 1996) may play a key role in the control of goal-directed actions by reward (Mogenson et al, 1980). It is generally assumed that the NAc subserves motivated behaviors such as feeding, sexual behavior, or exploratory locomotion elicited by primary reward and by conditioned stimuli associated with reward Everitt, 1990;Mitchell and Gratton, 1994;Watanabe, 1996).…”