These neurons project to the nucleus accumbens, and when they … charara@brain.bns.pitt.edu Charara A(1), Grace AA. Moreover, this effect was dependent upon dopamine antagonism within the basolateral nucleus but not the central nucleus of the amygdala. 6370 - … We applied a combined functional MRI-PET scanner to simultaneously probe mothers’ dopamine responses to their infants and the connectivity between the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), the amygdala, and the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), which form an intrinsic network (referred to as the “medial amygdala network”) that supports social functioning. The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is involved in modulating affective responses to stress and, along with the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), receives a stress-responsive dopamine (DA) projection from the ventral tegmental area. in summary, results of the present study indicate that the amygdala sends a strong excitatory input to the nucleus accumbens. Using seven-barrel microelectrodes, the effects of iontophoretic application of CCK-8, DA, dopamine D1 and/or D2 receptor agonists (SKF 38393 and LY 171555 respectively) were compared. The present findings suggest that expression of the ethanol-conditioned response depends upon amygdala dopamine and accumbens NMDA receptors. Dopamine receptor subtypes selectively modulate excitatory afferents from the hippocampus and amygdala to rat nucleus accumbens neurons. In any case, it is worth noting that the mesolimbic dopamine projection itself is influenced by output from various limbic structures including the amygdala14. In this respect, we have proposed that accumbens selects goals and attributes to them an incentive value regulated through its connections to the ventral tegmental area, in turn regulating the amount of dopamine injected in various key sub-cortical and cortical areas of brain (accumbens itself, amygdala, prefrontal cortex). A simple view of the information processing through the amygdala follows as: the amygdala sends projections to the hypothalamus, the dorsomedial thalamus, the thalamic reticular nucleus, the nuclei of the trigeminal nerve and the facial nerve, the ventral tegmental area, the locus coeruleus, and the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus. eat food, have sex, take drugs), dopamine neurons (along with other types of neurons) in an area of the brain called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are activated. An inverse pattern of accumbens nucleus vs amygdala activity was found on the second exposure day on which AN occurred. The number of c-Fos positive cells in the nucleus accumbens shell increased whilst the number of c-Fos positive cells in the basolateral amygdala decreased. Author information: (1)Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, 446 Crawford Hall, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Thus, infusing a dopamine receptor antagonist unilaterally into the basolateral amygdala (which had no effect on its own) and an AMPA-kainate (KA) receptor antagonist into the contralateral nucleus accumbens core (which also had no effect on its own) greatly reduced cocaine seeking. Dopamine D1 and NMDA receptors mediate potentiation of basolateral amygdala-evoked firing of nucleus accumbens neurons J Neurosci , 21 ( 2001 ) , pp. Antagonism of NMDA receptors in accumbens also blocked CPP expression. Neurons in the nucleus accumbens were activated by single pulse stimulation of amygdala. The most widely recognized function of the nucleus accumbens is its role in the "reward circuit" of the brain.When we do anything that is considered rewarding (e.g.