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Reward or reinforcement: What's the difference?The histories of the terms “reward” and “reinforcement” are reviewed to show the difference in their origins. Reward refers to the fact that certain environmental stimuli have the property of eliciting approach responses. Evidence suggests that the ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens area) is central to the mediation of this behavior. Reinforcement refers to the tendency of certain stimuli to strengthen learned stimulus-response tendencies. The dorsolateral striatum appears to be central to the mediation of this behavior. Neuroanatomical and neurochemical data are adduced suggesting that reward may be mediated by a neural circuit including the neostriatal patch system, together with the hippocampus, limbic system (amygdala, prefrontal cortex) and ventral pallidum. The evidence also suggests that reinforcement, in the form of dopamine release in the striatal matrix, acts to promote the consolidation of sensori-motor associations. Thus, the matrix may mediate stimulus-response memory as part of a circuit including the cerebral cortex, substantia nigra pars reticulata and its projections to thalamic and brainstem motor areas.
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In fact, quinpirole-treated males that cohabitate for 24 h with an almond-scented male will display a social partner preference and spend more time near that male relative to a sexually receptive female [91]. Connections between the nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum are critical for incentive motivation and adaptive behavior [92–96], and output is controlled in part by DA release in the nucleus accumbens [97,98]. The conditioned odor activates DA release selectively in the nucleus accumbens of paired but not unpaired males [75] and activates Fos selectively in the piriform cortex, nucleus accumbens core, lateral hypothalamic area, and basolateral amygdala of paired relative to unpaired male rats [46].
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