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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2010 Jan 23.
Published in final edited form as: Behav Brain Res. 2008 Oct 8;196(2):155–167. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2008.09.038

Figure 4.

Figure 4

Sagittal rodent brain diagram highlighting the ventral pallidum as a final pathway for limbic ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’ signals. ‘Liking’ systems (shown in red) link together opioid hedonic hotspots in the posterior ventral pallidum and dorsal-rostral accumbens shell, and potential link with a GABAergic hedonic signal in the parabrachial nucleus. ‘Wanting’ systems (green) link together mesolimbic dopamine, and opioid motivational signals in the accumbens and ventral pallidum, and larger circuits. The ventral pallidum is also connected with mesolimbic-thalamocortical loops (pink) and basal ganglia or brainstem motor output (gray) to influence cognition and action. Pie chart schematic shows ventral pallidum at an intersection of limbic connections with cognitive, motor, and reward structures. VTA ventral tegmental area; SN substantia nigra; PPT pedunculopontine tegmentum; LH lateral hypothalamus; PBN parabrachial nucleus; PFC prefrontal cortex; STN subthalamic nucleus; NAc nucleus accumbens; VTA ventral tegmental area; SN substantia nigra; mdThal mediodorsal thalamus; PBN parabrachial nucleus; Amyg amygdala.