ABSTRACT
Locomotor activity is emphasized in this context because it is a dominant component of all behaviors, and it is fundamental to behavioral adaptation, e.g., procurement of food or predatory escape. Hence, this limbic-motor integrative process ‘translates’ motivational signals into actions via the neural motor system and skeletomotor apparatus. In addition to the limbic afferents, the accumbens is also innervated densely by mesolimbic dopaminergic fibers arising from neurons in the ventral tegmental area. This chapter focuses on the functional roles of mesolimbic dopamine in regulating limbic inputs to and outputs from the nucleus accumbens. Decorticated animals can perform basic behaviors including eating, drinking, mating and nursing of their young even though some of the movements may be contextually inappropriate. The mesencephalic locomotor region encompasses regions of the cuneiform nucleus, pedunculopontine nucleus, ventromedial part of the inferior colliculus, mesencephalic trigeminal nucleus and regions of the dorsal tegmental bundle and brachium conjunctivum.
