‘Rewarding’ New Insights into the Olfactory Tubercle’s Role in Motivated Behavior

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Material below summarizes the article, The Neural Representation of Goal-Directed Actions and Outcomes in the Ventral Striatum’s Olfactory Tubercle, published on January 13, 2016 in The Journal of Neuroscience and authored by Marie A. Gadziola and Daniel W. Wesson.

Goal-directed behaviors are widespread among animals and underlie a variety of complex actions including food intake, social behavior, and even pathological conditions such as gambling and drug addiction. In order to select appropriate behavioral actions, the brain must evaluate reward-related sensory and contextual information while simultaneously considering internal motivational and emotional factors.

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