Conclusion
In conclusion, this study adds to the current understanding of BA-NAc
neurons with respect to their organization for and engagement by stimuli
of high emotional salience. The intermediate BA with its magnocellular
and parvocellular subregions contains a substantial number/density of
NAc-projecting glutamate neurons that are monovalent with respect to
estrous-receptive female and aggressive-dominant male. This novel,
iterative ex vivo and in vivo evidence demonstrates the
importance of this pathway in the circuitry of socio-emotional
processing, and in particular of studying the monovalent SR and SA
BA-NAc neuronal sub-populations separately. This will need to include
the study of causal involvement of these sub-populations in mouse models
for psychopathologies of reward or aversion processing, as occur
commonly in stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders.