Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 May 15.
Published in final edited form as: Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Oct 25;85(10):792–801. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.10.008

Figure 3:

Figure 3:

Hypothesized neural circuits of social approach (green lines) and avoidance (purple lines) in rodents (A) and humans (B). Several lines of evidence indicate that dopamine neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) projecting to the nucleus accumbens (NAc) facilitate social approach. Imaging studies in humans do not have the same level of resolution, but suggest that similar circuits (midbrain and ventral striatum) are active in positive social contexts. A circuit including the medial amygdala (MEA) and anterior bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTam) facilitate social avoidance in rodents. Imaging studies in humans frequently report increased BOLD responses in amygdala and BST in aversive contexts. Drawings by N. Duque-Wilckens.