Reward frontal cortex

The neuroehemical sites for psyehomotor stimulant reward are likely to be the presynaptic dopamine terminals located in the region of the nucleus aeeumbens, frontal cortex, and other forebrain structures that originate in the ventral tegmental area. Note, however, that intraeranial self-administration of eoeaine is elicited from the frontal cortex, but not from the nucleus aeeumbens (Goeders and Smith 1983). Thus, eoneomitant activation of structures other than the nucleus accumbens may be an important part of the circuitry involved in initiation of cocaine intravenous self-administration, as has been hypothesized for the opiates (Smith and Lane 1983 Smith et al. 1982). 

Carlezon, W.A., Jr. and Wise, R.A., Rewarding actions of phencyclidine and related drugs in the nucleus accumbens shell and frontal cortex, J. Neurosci., 16, 3112, 1996. 

Schultz W, Tremblay L, Hollerman JR. Reward prediction in primate basal ganglia and frontal cortex. Neuropharmacology 1998 37 421-9. 

In 1848, the French neurologist Paul Broca was the first to relate specific body functions to specific regions of the brain. Today, we can relate the insula to disgust the anterior cingulate to decision-making the medial orbital prefrontal cortex to reward-seeking and superior temporal sulcus and inferior frontal cortex to feelings of empathy. 

The possible roles of 5-HT4-RS in emotional and rewarding processes are only suggested by their presence in limbic structures such as septum, nucleus accumbens, ventral pallidum, and frontal cortex in human (Table 4, Figure 5) [55, 56]. One has to take in account that steroid release elevates mood and consequently putative behavioural modifications induced by 5-HT4-R agonists could be complicated by these effects [98, 99, 137]. 

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