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The nucleus accumbens (NAc or NAcc; also known as the accumbens nucleus, or formerly as the nucleus accumbens septi, Latin for 'nucleus adjacent to the septum') is a region in the basal forebrain rostral to the preoptic area of the hypothalamus. [1] The nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle collectively form the ventral striatum.
The nucleus accumbens plays an integral role in addiction. Almost every addictive drug of abuse induces the release of dopamine into the nucleus accumbens. [8] [37] [38] The NAc is particularly important for instrumental learning, including cue-induced reinstatement of drug-seeking behavior. [39]
The mesolimbic pathway and a specific set of the pathway's output neurons (e.g. D1-type medium spiny neurons within the nucleus accumbens) play a central role in the neurobiology of addiction. [20] [21] [22] Drug addiction is an illness caused by habitual substance use that induces chemical changes in the brain's circuitry. [23]
Finally, a link has been found between ethanol use and histone acetylation during development. After ethanol exposure, adolescent rats showed increased H3 and H4 acetylation in reward centers of the brain, such as the frontal cortex and nucleus accumbens. [90] This effect was not seen in adult rats.
The ventral pallidum receives GABAergic inputs from the nucleus accumbens. [5] It acts in part as a relay nucleus from the nucleus accumbens to the medial dorsal nucleus. The nucleus accumbens projects to the medial dorsal nucleus via GABAergic medium spiny neurons. The rewarding effects of addictive drugs are mediated in part through their ...
Cocaine addiction is the compulsive use of cocaine despite adverse consequences. It arises through epigenetic modification (e.g., through HDAC, sirtuin, and G9a) and transcriptional regulation (primarily through ΔFosB's AP-1 complex) of genes in the nucleus accumbens.
ΔFosB is the most significant biomolecular mechanism in addiction because the overexpression of ΔFosB in the D1-type medium spiny neurons in the nucleus accumbens is necessary and sufficient for many of the neural adaptations and behavioral effects (e.g., expression-dependent increases in drug self-administration and reward sensitization ...
The nucleus accumbens is located in the ventral striatum and integrates information from cortical and limbic brain structures to mediate behaviors the reinforce reward. [16] It is a major target for the dopaminergic projections from the VTA, a group of neurons located close to the midline on the floor of the midbrain .