increase the activity of dopamine cells in the mesocorticolimbic dopamine system causing increased dopamine release in brain areas such as the nucleus accumbens. Drugs of abuse mimic these effects, ...

dopamine incentivizes and makes animals work harder for reward…but other people have shown that some dopamine neurons that project to a different part of the nucleus accumbens are actually involved in ...

Zoe Donaldson. The study was just published in the journal Current Biology under the title “Nucleus accumbens dopamine release is necessary and sufficient to promote the behavioral response to ...

The upcoming presidential election could lead to a lot of unwanted – and sometimes unhealthy – snacking. Emotional eating can ...

Specifically, the team found that stimulating neurons in two areas of mouse brains — the nucleus accumbens, also known as the brain’s “pleasure center” responsible for relaying dopamine ...

It also directly influences the nucleus accumbens, the part of your brain’s reward system that creates feelings of pleasure. When dopamine is released in this pathway, you feel happy ...

Once consumed, the drug delivers a powerful stimulus to the nucleus accumbens, a cluster of nerve cells below the cerebral cortex, which responds quickly by releasing a flood of dopamine.

Psychopharmacology. 151(2-3), 152-165. [abstract] [PDF] Altier, N. & Stewart, J. (1999) The role of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens in analgesia. Life Sci. 65(22), 2269-2287. [abstract] [PDF] ...

Physiol Behav 131:129-135. [PubMed] [Content] Madularu D, Shams WM, Brake WG (2014) Estrogen potentiates the behavioral and nucleus accumbens dopamine response to continuous haloperidol treatment in ...