Nucleus Accumbens

The nucleus accumbens (Acb) is a brain structure that is a central part of the limbic system. It receives input from the hippocampus, amygdala, thalamic nuclei and the medial prefrontal cortex,¹ This information is being integrated in the Acb and encodes the prediction of the reward and probability of a behavioral response.² The output of the Acb is sent to several motor systems, such as the pallidum and the hypothalamic nuclei.^{3, 4}

Studying the connections of the nucleus accumbens

In 1990 Henk Berendse et al. performed a tracing study to analyze what brain structures project to the Acb.⁵ This was done by injecting the retrograde tracer CTB (cholera toxine subunit B) into the Acb. This tracer makes it possible to visualize the brain structures that project to the Acb by staining the cell bodies in the brain that project to the injection site. On the figure on the left you can see the injection site into the Acb.