Day Jeremy J, Carelli Regina M
Department of Psychology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3270, USA.
Neuroscientist. 2007 Apr;13(2):148-59. doi: 10.1177/1073858406295854.
The ability to form associations between predictive environmental events and rewarding outcomes is a fundamental aspect of learned behavior. This apparently simple ability likely requires complex neural processing evolved to identify, seek, and use natural rewards and redirect these activities based on updated sensory information. Emerging evidence from both animal and human research suggests that this type of processing is mediated in part by the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and a closely associated network of brain structures. The NAc is required for a number of reward-related behaviors and processes specific information about reward availability, value, and context. In addition, this structure is critical for the acquisition and expression of most Pavlovian stimulus-reward relationships, and cues that predict rewards produce robust changes in neural activity in the NAc. Although processing within the NAc may enable or promote Pavlovian reward learning in natural situations, it has also been implicated in aspects of human drug addiction, including the ability of drug-paired cues to control behavior. This article provides a critical review of the existing animal and human literature concerning the role of the NAc in Pavlovian learning with nondrug rewards and considers some clinical ture concerning the role of the NAc in Pavlovian learning with nondrug implications of these findings.
在预测性环境事件与奖励结果之间形成关联的能力是学习行为的一个基本方面。这种看似简单的能力可能需要复杂的神经处理过程，这些过程经过进化以识别、寻求和利用自然奖励，并根据更新的感官信息重新引导这些活动。来自动物和人类研究的新证据表明，这种类型的处理部分是由伏隔核（NAc）和紧密相关的脑结构网络介导的。NAc是许多与奖励相关的行为和过程所必需的，它处理有关奖励可用性、价值和背景的特定信息。此外，这个结构对于大多数经典条件刺激-奖励关系的获得和表达至关重要，预测奖励的线索会在NAc中引起神经活动的强烈变化。虽然NAc内的处理可能在自然情况下促进或推动经典条件奖励学习，但它也与人类药物成瘾的各个方面有关，包括与药物配对的线索控制行为的能力。本文对现有的动物和人类文献进行了批判性综述，这些文献涉及NAc在非药物奖励的经典条件学习中的作用，并考虑了这些发现对NAc在非药物经典条件学习中作用的一些临床意义。
