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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Oct 15.
Published in final edited form as: Biochem Pharmacol. 2011 Jun 29;82(8):984–995. doi: 10.1016/j.bcp.2011.06.026

Fig 1. Expression of nAChR subunits in brain regions relevant to nicotine reinforcement.

Fig 1

Graphical representation of nAChR subtypes expressed in brain regions implicated in the rewarding and reinforcing properties of nicotine and other drugs of abuse. The red arrows indicate neuronal projections. There is dense expression of nAChR subtypes in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) [64, 126, 260–263], which are two major sites of ascending dopamine projections. Sites of dopaminergic input, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc), dorsal striatum, prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus [129, 260, 264–266] are also enriched in nAChR subtypes. Other brain sites that have dense nAChR expression and that have been implicated in regulating nicotine self-administration behavior include the medial habenula and interpeduncular nucleus (IPN), and amygdala [260, 264, 267].