Figure 1.

Principal afferents linking brain centers for goal-directed behavior with the NAc and VTA. For clarity, only some of the projections are shown, and the principal efferent pathways from the NAc are illustrated in Figure 2. Red indicates inhibitory structures and pathways, green excitatory connections, and yellow the modulatory influence of DA. Please refer to the text for detailed explanation. BLA, basolateral amygdala; LHA/LPOA, lateral hypothalamic and lateral preoptic areas; LHb, lateral habenula; Mid/Intral Thal, midline and intralaminar thalamic nuclei; NAc, nucleus accumbens; PAG/RF, periaqueductal gray and reticular formation; PFC, prefrontal cortex; PPTg/LDT, pedunculopontine and laterodorsal tegmentum; RMTg, mesopontine rostromedial tegmental nucleus; VP, ventral pallidum; vSub/Hipp, ventral subiculum of the hippocampus; VTA, ventral tegmental area.