Functional Connectivity and Coactivation of the Nucleus Accumbens: A Combined Functional Connectivity and Structure-Based Meta-analysis

Abstract

Abstract■ This article investigates the functional connectivity patterns of the nucleus accumbens (NAcc) in 18 healthy participants using a resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) protocol. Also, a meta-analytic connectivity modeling (MACM) was used to characterize patterns of functional coactivations involving NAcc: The results of a structure-based meta-analyses of 57 fMRI and PET studies were submitted to activation likelihood estimation analysis to estimate consistent activation patterns across the different imaging studies. The results of the combined rsFC and MACM analyses show that spontaneous activity in NAcc predicts activity in regions implicated in reward circuitries, including orbitomedial prefrontal cortex, globus pallidus, thalamus, midbrain, amygdala, and insula. This confirms the key role of NAcc in the mesocorticolimbic system, which integrates inputs from limbic and cortical regions. We also detected activity in brain regions having few or no direct anatomical connections with NAcc, such as sensorimotor cortex, cerebellum, medial and posterior parietal cortex, and medial/inferior temporal cortex, supporting the view that not all functional connections can be explained by anatomical connections but can also result from connections mediated by third areas. Our rsFC findings are in line with the results of the structure-based meta-analysis: MACM maps are superimposable with NAcc rsFC results, and the reward paradigm class is the one that most frequently generates activation in NAcc. Our results overlap considerably with recently proposed schemata of the main neuron systems in the limbic forebrain and in the anterior part of the limbic midbrain in rodents and nonhuman primates. ■

Age differences in default and reward networks during processing of personally relevant information

“…The pattern of functional connectivity seen with the ventral striatum seed (p < 0.001, 33% covariance; Figure 2b) was consistent with previous papers on the RN (Camara, et al, 2009;Cauda, et al, 2011;Krebs, et al, 2011;Ye, et al, 2011), and included bilateral ventral striatum, vmPFC and anterior cingulate, dorsomedial PFC, thalamus, and the ventral tegmental area (Figure 2b and Table 5). Additional connectivity was seen in regions of temporal and parietal cortex and the left insula.…”

“…The regions involved in these patterns of connectivity were quite similar to other reports of connectivity in these networks (e.g., Cauda, et al, 2011;Toro, et al, 2008), indicating that our seed-PLS analyses demonstrate reasonable instantiations of these two networks that are robust under conditions in which they would be expected to be relevant. Indeed, the regions that we identified in our task analysis and chose for our seeds are very similar to regions identified with quite different tasks and/or used as seeds by other researchers (e.g., Andrews-Hanna, et al, 2010;Camara, et al, 2009;Krebs, et al, 2011;Toro, et al, 2008), suggesting that the same regions of PCC and ventral striatum are critically involved in a variety of cognitive states that would modulate activity in the DN and RN.…”

“…There is ample neuroimaging evidence of the involvement of these areas in tasks that tap the use of rewards to make decisions, especially the ventral striatum (Abler, Walter, Erk, Kammerer, & Spitzer, 2006;Knutson, Taylor, Kaufman, Peterson, & Glover, 2005;Liu, et al, 2011;O'Doherty, Deichmann, Critchley, & Dolan, 2002;Pagnoni, Zink, Montague, & Berns, 2002;Rolls, McCabe, & Redoute, 2008;Schott et al, 2008). In addition, there is recent support for the idea that these areas are functionally connected during reward tasks (Camara, Rodriguez-Fornells, & Munte, 2009;Krebs, Heipertz, Schuetze, & Duzel, 2011;Ye, Hammer, Camara, & Munte, 2011), and rest (Cauda et al, 2011). Our previous finding of activation in ventral striatum during judgments of self and a close other (Grigg & Grady, 2010a) is consistent with the idea that there is an intimate link between self and reward (Northoff & Hayes, 2011).…”

The cerebellum in drug craving

“…Concretely, co-activations and functional connections between cerebellum and cortical structures, such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (Habas et al, 2009;Leutgeb et al, 2016;Moulton et al, 2011;Sang et al, 2012), orbitofrontal cortex (Addis et al, 2016;Habas et al, 2009;Leutgeb et al, 2016), anterior cingulate cortex (Addis et al, 2016;Moulton et al, 2011;Sang et al, 2012;Zeng et al, 2012), insula (Addis et al, 2016;Habas et al, 2009;Moulton et al, 2011;Sang et al, 2012), and inferior frontal gyrus (Addis et , 2016;Moulton et al, 2011;Tomasi and Volkow, 2011) have been reported. Other subcortical structures such as amygdala (Leutgeb et al, 2016;Sang et al, 2012;Zeng et al, 2012), hippocampus (Onuki et al, 2015;Sang et al, 2012;Zeng et al, 2012), ventral tegmental area (Carnell et al, 2014;Etkin et al, 2009;Kline et al, 2016;Kwon et al, 2014), dorsal striatum (Moulton et al, 2011;Sang et al, 2012;Tomasi and Volkow, 2011), and ventral striatum (Cauda et al, 2011;Cservenka et al, 2014;Koehler et al, 2013) also have demonstrated to be connected to the cerebellum.…”

Migraine and Reward System—Or Is It Aversive?

“…A recent fMRI study in healthy volunteers and rodents reported that onset of noxious heat produced a decrease in activity within the nucleus accumbens, whereas offset of acute pain produced an increase in activity within the nucleus accumbens and ACC [77]. Since the ACC receives connections from other cortical and subcortical regions, including the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and the nucleus accumbens [78], it is likely that the nucleus accumbens plays a role in modulating activity within the ACC, and thereby indirectly regulates the subjective experience of pain through this brain structure.…”