Figure 2.

Neuronal connections of Nucleus Accumbens. Glutamatergic afferences from the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala terminate on GABAergic medium spiny neurons and are modulated pre- and postsynaptically by dopamine. The glutamatergic input from the hippocampus and the amygdala drives the medium spiny neurons into a depolarized state and the input from the prefrontal cortex is capable of triggering action potentials [119]. AMY = amygdala; HC = hippocampus; PFC = prefrontal cortex; NAc = nucleus accumbens; VTA = ventral tegmental area.