What is Nucleus accumbens ?

Nucleus accumbens is a collection of neurons and forms the main part of the ventral striatum. It is thought to play an important role in reward, pleasure, laughter, addiction, aggression, fear, and the placebo effect.

Each half of the brain has one nucleus accumbens. It is located where the head of the caudate and the anterior portion of the putamen meet just lateral to the septum pellucidum. The nucleus accumbens and the olfactory tubercle collectively form the ventral striatum, which is part of the basal ganglia.

The nucleus accumbens can be divided into two structures—the nucleus accumbens core and the nucleus accumbens shell. These structures have different morphology and function.

The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes in the brain which is involved in the cognitive processing of decision-making. It consists in non-human primates of the association cortex areas brodmann area 11, 12 and 13; in humans it consists of brodmann area 10, 11 and 47. Because of its functions in emotion and reward, the OFC is considered by some to be a part of the limbic system.

It has been proposed that the OFC is involved in sensory integration, in representing the affective value of reinforcers, and in decision-making and expectation. In particular, the human OFC is thought to regulate planning behavior associated with sensitivity to reward and punishment.

Thanks for the explanations!!!