Fig. 1.

Summary of the behavioral effects of the mesolimbic system action of peptides and hormones reviewed in this manuscript. Sagittal outline of the brain in green summarizes the effects of intra-NAcc and intra-VTA actions of orexigenic peptides (A) while the section in blue summarizes the effects of anorexigenic peptides (B) and hormones on feeding as well as food, drug, and social reward. In general, “intake” refers to free consumption, “reward” refers to behaviors measured by paradigms such as self-administration and CPP, and “response” refers to behaviors such as substance-induced locomotion. “NAcc-“and VTA-specific sections describe effects produced exclusively in that area (which sometimes were due to the lack of response and in other cases due to lack of testing) whereas the SHARED section contains common effects produced by peptide/hormone action in the two brain regions. Abbreviations used: EtOH-alcohol; M-male; F-female.